Chapter 19.3 – Sunset Valley March 2023 – part I: Forest for the trees..
Now, what I had plan for this season was to follow Amena and George until they had their new home built and was ready to move in there. However, given Ranveigs initiative last month following Lise Veronicas birthday, I think I'm gonna have to follow Ranveig, Monica and Lise Veronica a little bit as well.. was not part of my plan, but I do appreciate the initiative taken to perhaps once and for all get rid of the condition that has plagued the family for almost three generations now...
So yeah, things happen that are not in line with what I have thought, but that's just how it is. Do my sims care? Nope! They live their own lives as they darn well please, and that's probably excactly how it should be!
Also, there will be a couple more kids that will age up to teenagers soon. That is Ranveigs youngest son Robert Bråge, and Lise Veronicas cousin Bjørn-Yngve. They will both get their own birthday updates a little later.
Some days have passed now since Lise Veronicas birthday, but it's still fresh in her memory. Aging up is such a strange thing..
"All of a sudden my body just got a lot bigger and more difficult to handle.. Just the other day I was having a glass of milk with my breakfast, but when I tried to grab it, it wasn't where I thought it was, so I tipped it over instead spilling all the milk all over the table.. and then I did trip over my own feet a few times to when running for school from the schoolbus. That was just so embarassing, I hope nobody saw it happening! I thought I heard someone laughing, so I just wished I could disappear then into a black hole or something, but I heard the bell ringing, and I know mom would get angry with me if she figured out I was skipping school, so I had to go..."
In the room next to Lise Veronicas, her parents Monica and Ivar got a rude awakening as their little boy Thomas woke up and was feeling hungry... Kids, they grow up so fast. Just in less than a years time it will be his turn to age up and start school for the first time, but for now he is very much dependent on mommy and daddy for most things...
Daddy grumpily takes him downstairs to feed him in the baby high chair, before he gets an idea..
"I think it's time to test the sound quality of the stereo I gave her for her birthday.. you know, just to see how good it is.. can't listen to music on a sub-par stereo!"
"Good morning, Lise Veronica! Time to wake up!"
Yeah, right.. test the sound quality of the stereo huh? That's what I call a j'erk move!
"...what? What's going on? Why is the stereo on now? I thought I turned it off before going to bed.."
..and her father? Well, after waking up his daughter, he just went back to bed.. atleast now he knows she'll wake up in time for school..
..and have someone that can go downstairs and care for Thomas. Monica could have done it too, but she's up on the balcony honing her logic skills playing chess before going to work. :P
Waking up a lot earlier than necessary, Lise Veronica had plenty of time to eat breakfast and play video games before she stopped to think..
"..of course! It was dad.. who else could it have been? But I'll get back at him, later.. after school, and uh.. after we've been to the doctor with my aunt. My mom says my aunt wants us to go there, and I think it has something to do with.. sometimes I have been hearing these creepy things, like someone is whispering to me. I couldn't make it what they were saying, and I wasn't sure where it came from, but it looked like nobody else heard it but me. It was scary, but mom says that if we go to the doctor, the doctor can make them go away. I hope so, because I really don't like hearing it. And then I'll get back at dad for what he did! I'll so get back at him!"
A little later, after sleeping in, Ivar wakes up to take Thomas to the park. Now, since their kids are growing up, Ivar and Monica have figured it's time to expand the house. As soon as Thomas gets of school age, he can't sleep in their bedroom anymore, so the house needs an extra room. Because there isn't much room left on their lot, the only way to expand the house is upwards, so they've hired a contractor to build another room on top of the house.
This new room will be Lise Veronicas room, and Thomas will get the room she is currently having. Monicas garden had to temporarily give way to the scaffolding next to the house. It's going to be a lot of work, they're essentially going to have to tear down the roof, build another staircase and a floor, before rebuilding the roof on top of that again, but they're sure it's going to be worth it and that Lise Veronica will enjoy having her own room with a view on top of the house.
Ivar wanted to go to the park to find another sim to jam with, but of course, almost as soon as he gets out his guitar and starts playing, a very local hailstorm shows up, so he picks up Thomas and heads back home again.. guess we'll have to jam in the park another day...
Monica has advanced far enough in her career to have pretty short workdays, so she gets home from work shortly thereafter. She also got a pay rise, and thought it was time for them to upgrade to a better tv, one that cost atleast 500 simoleons..
Lise Veronica returns from school, and they talk for a while about her birthday party and gardening, while waiting for Ranveig to show up. Ivar tests out how the new tv performs while using the video game system.
Coincidentally Lise Veronica gets phoned by Margrethe, which is the daughter of the doctor they are just heading to. Margrethe is learning from her mom, so their conversation seems to revolve around the importance of taking your medicine to stay well.
Ranveig arrives while Lise Veronica is still on the phone. Ranveig talks a bit about her journalism career and how she just finished a course in photography paid by her job, before they get to the reason for her visit and it's time to go..
- Doctor's office -
While they are at the doctors waiting room, Ranveig wants to make Lise Veronica feel at ease in this situation, so she talks to her about topics she thinks she would be thinking about, such as skipping school..
If Monica heard that she wouldn't enjoy it, that her sister might appear to encourage her daughter to skip school, but Monica is more concerned about something else..
"That plant on the table.. I don't like that plant, it's wire tapped! It's the government.. They're listening to us right now, and they're talking to us through these plants. They're talking and they're listening to us, they can hear everything we say and everything we think, and then they're going to take over the world.. That plant is cooperating with the government, they're manipulating us and they'll put us all in jail to take over the world and turn everyone into walking plantsims.."
After just a few minutes of waiting, the doctor comes out and calls them into her office.
Monica staring out the window and thinking: "..the trees. They're in the trees too. I can hear the trees whisper, and they're all listening to to us. They want to control our minds, but I don't want to be controlled to become a plant, and I don't..."
Ranveig: It's time to go Monica, the doctor just came out...
Monica: But the trees, Ranveig! Can't you hear the trees, and the plants! They're whispering to us..
Ranveig: Monica! You know that's not real! We have to go now...
Lise Veronica: Mom scares me.. what is she saying??
Ranveig: I uh.. I don't know.. are you coming Monica?
Monica: Yes, yes, but not so loud, they can hear us..
Ranveig: Just come...
Monica eventually snaps out of it, and follows them to the doctors office. She wants to get rid of it too. She doesn't want to have to believe that she's being listened to by government controlled plants. She's aware of how far out that sounds, and she doesn't want to act like she sometimes do, but from time to time these thoughts and voices get so invasive it becomes a real struggle to keep them seperate from what is actually real...
Inside the doctors office the conversation starts off easy, with the doctor just engaging in simple conversation to get to know her new clients a little better. What they do for a living, and just in general, what their everyday life is like. Of course, since Sunset Valley is such a small town, the doctor, whose real name is Pia Holm.-Fredriksen, knows Ranveig from before, as she is married to Ranveigs ex and Oliver Freddys father...
The doctor, or Pia, employs the same tactic as Ranveig did earlier, to make Lise Veronica feel welcomed and relaxed. She has a teenage daughter of her own at home (Margrethe), so she knows that teenagers aren't always happy to go to school. She's not encouraging skipping school, though, as a doctor, she knows she can't do that. Lise Veronica eagerly talks about how she just went shopping for new clothes, and is happy to show the doctor the dress she is wearing. She thinks it's the prettiest dress she has ever owned. It's much prettier than the clothes mom and dad bought for her, because they were almost the excact clothes as her cousin, and she couldn't go to school wearing a similar outfit as someone else! What would the others think! No way!
Then Pia – the doctor – turns to Ranveig again, to get serious and get to the main point of their visit – the treatment. She says it's going to consist of them taking medicine – antipsychotics – as well as cognitive behavioural therapy, and that it will releave them of their hallucinations and cognitive distortions. Ranveig accepts this almost immediately, whatever it takes to get better, but Monica is more skeptical and goes on the defensive.
She demands to know the price tag of all this, as well as a full and exhaustive list of all possible side effects. She's not gonna be swallowing any kind of pill unless she knows excactly what it does, and how! And it better not be made by the government!
Doctor Pia: Monica.. you work in science don't you?
Monica: Yes, that's my job.. but what does that have to do with any of this?
Doctor Pia: And through your job you're trained in rational thinking, would that be correct?
Monica: Yes, I am. Look, is this some kind of trial or something?
Doctor Pia: No, Monica. I'm not here to judge you. I'm here to help you. I'm only trying to guide you in the right direction.
Monica: So what are you saying? What are you trying to say?
Doctor Pia: Well, I overheard what you said in the waiting room, about the trees. Is that rational, Monica?
Monica: What do you mean?
Doctor Pia: About the trees and how they're whispering to you.
Monica: Well, it's not the actual trees, I'm not stupid. It's the microphones in the trees, and they're placed there by the government. It's all about mind control, because they want to take over the world.
Doctor Pia: Why do you think the government would want to do that?
Ranveig: This is nonsense, Monica...
Doctor Pia: Please, only one at a time. Monica?
Monica: Well, it's.. it's all about control. They want to turn us into plants, so they can control us. They already got scientists working on making plantsims!
Doctor Pia: Scientists.. like you?
Monica: No, not like me! The government has their own scientists!
Doctor Pia: Who pays your salary then, Monica?
Monica: Well, I work at the Landgraab reasearch facility, so it's the Landgraabs of course..
Doctor Pia: And where do they get the funding from, for their reasearch projects?
Monica: Well, it's in part from businesses that want research done on certain products, but mostly it's from the government, it's from the ...uh...
Doctor Pia: So you're a government scientist then, Monica?
Monica: I'm uh.. no, I'm uh... uh... oh, darn...
Doctor Pia: What's your current research project, Monica?
Monica: Well, currently we, me and my colleagues that is, are working on developing a new and more durable, long lasting type of concrete to be used in sim stopper fences, because the government is looking for ways to cut maintenance costs on their fences, and uh..
Doctor Pia: So... but do you know of any government funded research on trees?
Monica: No, not at our institute, not currently, but I do know they have a program doing research on how trees can be better used to capture carbon dioxide from our atmosphere, because you know, climate change and all that..
Doctor Pia: Well, that's definately interesting, but nothing about microphones or turning people into plants?
Monica: Well, I haven't seen any of that from my job, but if they do, they are of course probably keeping that secret somewhere.. though I'll do admit, it sounds pretty far out.. I know that the Landgraab institute has a self-funded project where they are looking into cross breeding between creatures and robots. My dream is to be admitted into that program one day, but that one isn't government funded, and so far I don't know about any plans to include plants and humans in there..
Doctor Pia: Hmm, well it definately sounds like they've got some interesting plans there, and I do wish you good luck on getting into that program.. now, do you accept treatment for you and your daughter?
Monica: Uhm.. I guess.. I guess I do, but I still want to know what it's gonna cost...
Doctor Pia: Yeah.. that's some of the bad news here, the treatment required is quite expensive, but the good news is that the government will pay 40 % of the bill for your treatment, and since your daughter is underage, they will finance up to 60 % of her treatment, so all in all, it's not so bad...
Monica:Wow, that's uh.. why haven't we done this before?
Ah, don't you just love a happy ending? Now, what happened next was pretty ordinary. It was just them laying out a framework for the future, and the doctor being there to answer any questions they might have. Especially from Lise Veronica. She was a big girl now, but would still require some additional guidance on this whole treatment and medicine thing.
Ranveig: See sister, this wasn't so bad was it?
Monica: No, I guess you're right.. whispering microphones in trees, huh? Sheesh...
Ranveig: Now you take care of yourself, and do your homework for auntie, alright? Lise Veronica: I will.. Ranveig: And no skipping school! Lise Veronica: No skipping school, I promise!
Ranveig then leaves to go back to her own son, and the family goes back into their house.
- Home life -
"If I can pull a prank on dad now, this will be my fourth sucessful prank.. I want to do five, so I only have two more to go..."
"This new tv that mom bought is really great. The picture quality is so much better!"
"..you know dad, it's so great, it makes me want to skip school tomorrow!"
Then Thomas exits the bathroom behind them and wants to join the rest of the family, so he climbs up on his sisters lap and asks to watch the childrens channel. :P
Since the family life there looks so idyllic and nice, I dare to leave them alone while I check up on Amena and George. I find Amena at the local chess club, where I assume she is on duty, given that she's in her uniform. She looks out the window and gets a little dreamy eyed when she thinks about how satelites launched into space can be used to spy on international lawbreakers...
George has joined the boy scouts since last time we saw him, because that's where he was. He just left along with Robert Bråge. It looks like todays topic was fishing, as the notification says he just increased his fishing skill to level 2.
Hmm, Amena must have gotten that loan from the bank too, because now things appear to be happening on the lot she bought last month.. This looks very much like the outline and foundation of a new house. Should be interesting to see what the final results will be like.
Back at the Motor-Notesen family home, Ivar just got up from his chair to place a book back in the shelf when Lise Veronica grabs the opportunity..
..but unfortunately for her, mom saw what she did and is not happy about it, having been pranked three times already..
Lise Veronica: ..but mom, this one wasn't for you. It was for dad.. Monica: That's irrelevant! I don't want to see any more pranks in this house! Is that understood?
"Wow! Mom was really angry now... maybe if I do my homework she will be in a better mood..."
"Oh of course.. I should ask dad to help me with the homework! That should serve him right for waking me up with the stereo this morning..."
Later when it was time for supper...
Lise Veronica: You know mom, the new tv you bought sucks! Kleopatras parents has a much bigger and better tv! Why didn't you get one like that?
Monica: Now you watch it, young lady, or I won't be teaching you how to drive when that time comes!
Lise Veronica: Don't be so grumpy mom, I didn't mean it like that...
"Now I have to do a prank on both dad and mom again too, since she is being so sour..."
Lise Veronica: Hey, mom! Shouldn't you be going to the bathroom soon? I thought I heard some trees in there calling for you....
Monica: That was a very uncool thing to say..
Lise Veronica: Well, your tv still sucks..
Monica: What is this? What has gotten into you!? Do you want to go to your room or something!?
Lise Veronica: No...
Monica: Then behave! I'm not gonna sit here and take this!
Ivar: Come on my boy, I think it's time for you to go to bed now...
After Ivar had gone upstairs to tuck in Thomas, Lise Veronica sat down in his chair to continue talking..
Lise Veronica: Mom... there's a school ball coming soon, and someone from the senior year has invited me and Kleopatra to a pre-party where they will be drinking juice and playing games. Do you think I can go mom?
Monica: What!? No, not at all!! You're not going there, you're much to young to be drinking juice! Who invited you!?
Lise Veronica: Just some older guys mom, and Kleopatras parents allowed her to go!
Monica: Well, I'll talk to her parents about that, but I don't think so.. none of you are going, and I'll see to that!
Lise Veronica: You suck, mom!
Monica: Ok, that does it, I'm not gonna listen to this anymore! I'll go to bed now, and I suggest you do the same! I'll have a talk with your dad and Kleopatras parents tomorrow, and you'd better stay in line from now on! One more word like that from you, and you'll be grounded on the night of the ball and you won't be going anywhere!!
Lise Veronica: Whatever you say mom...
Ivar is on his way down again, and meets Monica on her way up halfway down the stairs...
Ivar: What was all that about? Your mom looked really furious...
Lise Veronica: I don't know dad, she's been really grumpy all evening..
Ivar: And you had no part in that?
Lise Veronica: Good night dad, I'm going to bed now...
Ivar: Good night, but I think we have something to talk about tomorrow...
Yep, sounds like they have something to discuss among them here.. After everyone else had fallen asleep, Ivar sat up for another hour and a half playing video games, before he finally decided to hit the sheets as well, and their home was once more peaceful and quiet...for now atleast...
Rebel Heart by Madonna Louise Veronica Ciccone, better known as just Madonna.
Advice to parents: In spite of the sticker shown there on the image, this song is not actually explicit, and is perfectly safe and appropriate for your teenager to listen to!
This happy little fellow was the first to wake early, early in the morning to play with the building block toys that are still in his sisters bedroom.. This is why they are building a new bedroom for her, because if he should get hungry now, guess who's gonna wake up early again..
..but trying to figure out how these building blocks work (and taste) is so much fun, he didn't notice he was hungry, and big sister got to sleep in just right.
Mixed feelings... "I love my little brother, he's really cute when he's playing with those toys, but why does it have to be in my room? Ughh..."
Well, hang in there, you'll get a new one eventually..
She is a responsible sister though, and takes her brother down to feed him and watch a little bit of tv before school. Some peace and quiet with mom and dad still sleeping!
Well, not for long, because here comes mom. And I'm thinking.. what is that? What are you wearing? This is actually the first time I see Monica in her sleepwear.. Before she just slept in whatever she wanted.. swimwear, outdoor wear, it didn't matter, but since they went to the doctor, things have normalized a little, and how she actually uses the right outfit for the occasion. :P
The idea is that the insane trait (in this family) will be "cured" into the eccentric trait, since that's what I originally wanted her mother Eirin to have, I just didn't have the expansion pack with the trait at the time she was made. However, something has happened that have given several of my sims six personality traits instead of the usual five, so in CAS when the insane trait was removed, there was no available slot to add the eccentric trait, so she didn't get it. I think this has something to do with university life and reaching the top of social groups there that rewards an extra trait slot, but I'm not really sure. I think eccentric would have fit really well for a scientist like Monica, but I guess she's gonna have to climb the ranks of some social group again to get it.
Lise Veronica tries to engage in conversation with her mom about the program they're watching, but Monica doesn't talk back. She still looks a little grumpy from yesterday.. who is the child here? Well, it's supposed to be the one on the right...
"I don't know what's up with mom lately.. she got really grumpy yesterday, and this morning she wouldn't talk to me. She just came down to watch tv, care for Thomas and then go off to work, as if I wasn't even there. I don't get it.. doesn't she like me anymore? She's my mom, she has to. Well, maybe I did say some things yesterday that I shouldn't have said.. The tv isn't really that bad, and I was just trying to make some jokes.. I don't know.."
"I just need to cross off one more prank on my list. It's probably not a good idea to do any more pranks at home, or mom won't let me go to the ball! I have to go to class now, but I'll see if I can't sneak away when the teachers aren't looking to do something.. I'm not sure what, but I'll probably figure something out.."
Since Ivar works afternoons in the music business, he has a different sleep schedual from the others, getting up late and staying up late. He still had some time for breakfast and playtime with Thomas, before he had to go to work and leave the house to the maid and the babysitter..
The maid and the babysitter is not the same person, but that doesn't make a difference for Thomas, as long as it's an adult or at least older person that can take care of him. The maid was reluctant to pick him up first, but after he asked her five times for a hug, she eventually caved in..
The actual babysitter didn't care about Thomas at all. She was much more interested in talking to the maid, and she seems to be interested in cleaning too. Maybe they should have switched roles...
Monica has advanced for enough in her career to have relatively short workdays, so she gets home early and then the useless babysitter is paid and dismissed...
Monica still has a desire to upgrade things, though, so she goes to have a look at the kitchen sink..
"Hmm, I wonder if I can apply some of the same techniques on these faucets as we just did with the sim stopper fence.. if I somehow can make these more durable as well.. I don't really like to have water splashed on me... Maybe I can even prevent Lise Veronica from being able to do pranks with the kitchen sink..."
At the Sunset Valley School for Gifted Children, the bell rings and the school bus honks. Some kids are staying for their after school activities, and the rest of them are going back home to their mom and dad.. all of them, except one..
"I tried to sneak off to do a prank, but the teachers were always watching, so I didn't get to do one.. Maybe later...*
* - Silly, but the option present to do a prank was there before she entered the school building, but disappeared as soon as school was over. The action was even queued up, but when she finished for the day, it just.. went away like that...
"I didn't want to go home either, in case mom was still mad at me, so I sat down behind the school to do my homework.."
"Then I got hungry and needed something to eat.. I don't get to much in allowance, so I didn't want to go to a restaurant, it's to expensive for me. The Blitzkrieg house is really nice, because they have really cheap food there, so that's where I went. I think it's a good place for young people to stay, and while you're there, you can just do whatever you want. They literally have no rules, as long as you're not being mean and starting fights."
Picture: The Blitzkrieg house, the local rebel hangout in Sunset Valley.
"They have books there, too, that you can read. Sometimes there may be some interesting books there. It's kind of like.. you can take a book home with you, if you just replace it with a book and nobody will care. If you take a book, you will always have to leave one behind, and this way there will always be some new books to read. There's a lot of cook books here and books about politics and things like that. I like the books that are about protesting the best. I want to be in a protest one day, because I think the adults, they just don't know how to run the world properly. They only think about themselves and how to make more money and then they just get old and die. I don't want to live like that, I want to care about the animals instead."
"There was an old woman there too. I didn't know that the elderly also like to hang out here. She said she was happy about the younger generations coming to this place. Apparently she was one of the people that first started this place or something, by just.. taking over an abandoned building and turning it into a place for young people to hang out Like she just stole the place and said it was hers? She really liked to read as well, and she recommended I read a book called "Critique of Political Economy" by some guy. I think she said Gnarl Barx or something, but I don't know. I don't really understand politics, and I'm not old enough to vote. I wouldn't know who to vote for anyway. I think it's all a little complicated. She looked just as old as grandma, and I wondered why she wasn't in a home for elderly people already!"
"I have never been in this building before. Mom always told me it wasn't a building for children, but I'm not a child anymore. I wanted to explore more of it, so I walked up the stairs to to the second floor and I found this room with some refridgerators, a couch and some other stuff. I don't know what this room is for, but I thought the couch would be a perfect place to do my last prank."
"This place had a basement too, and when I walked down there I found what looked like some music room, because there were lots of instruments in there. Kleopatra was also there, with her friend Olivia from school. I don't know Olivia that well, and I heard her mom likes to steal stuff, so I tried to keep away from her."
"Kleopatra told me someone must have been talking, because when she came home from school today, her mom was acting a little strange. She thought her mom must have figured out about the pre-party somehow, because she was asking lots of questions about the school ball, and insisted that she should drive her there. I didn't dare tell her that it was probably my mom that had told her. Next time I'm going to keep it a secret and not tell my mom anything!"
"I tried to tell Kleopatra that we could try to sneak out and go anyway, but she said it was to risky now that her mom knew and everything. She said she'd heard about kids even going to juvenile court for not listening to their parents, and she didn't want to risk that! I didn't know they could send kids to court, is that legal? But Kleopatra said she didn't want to go anymore, and if she isn't going, than I don't know if I will either, because I don't want to go there alone."
"I like this place though. Someone had even lit up a huge bonfire in the backyard, so that everyone could stay warm outside also after dark. I have never seen such a huge bonfire before, I think this place will be my new favorite hangout."
"I didn't want to go home yet, so I went back upstairs to that room on the second floor. That room there was interesting, and I wanted to see what was behind those doors there."
"The door on the left actually had a bathroom with a bathtub. It looked a little special like someone had been getting creative in there. I wasn't sure if it would actually work, or why there was a bathtub up there, but I was getting a little smelly so I thought I could try it out."
Back home mom was starting to get a little concerned.. Her father had finished his evening shift, it was already dark out..
"Ivar.. do you have any idea where our daughter is? It's friday night and she should have been home by now.. I just hope she's not hanging out with those older boys..."
Ivar: Relax, she'll probably be home soon.. didn't you used to stay out late when you were her age?
Monica: Well, sometimes, but this is different... I'll call her. She should be home now.
Back at the Blitzkrieg house, Lise Veronica had gone downstairs into the music room when her phone rang...
Lise Veronica: Hi.. hi mom...
Monica: Where are you? You should've been home now. It's late, and I'm worried about you.
Lise Veronica: I'm uh.. I'm over at a friends house....
Monica: What friend? Where are you? Who is that playing guitar in the background?
Lise Veronica: It's uh.. it's Kleopatras mom! She just bought a new.. guitar, isn't that c... cool, mom?
Monica: Really? Why is she playing guitar for you at this hour? Can I talk to her for a second?
Lise Veronica: Uhh... n... no, she's uh.. busy... She uh.. has to finish the song first..
Monica: Hmm, you're not really there are you?
Ivar (in the background): She's probably at the Blitzkreig house.. I used to go hang out at a similar place when I was her age and had fought with my parents...
Monica: Are you at the Blitzkrieg house?
Lise Veronica: N-no, mom... Kleopatras dad is about to make us uh.. chicken, and we're just about to uh.. eat.
Monica: What, in the dark? I don't think so. I can see their house from here, and all their lights are off... Stay right where you are, I'll come pick you up!
Lise Veronica: But mom...
Monica: Looks like I'll be out for a few minutes. I'll be right back...
Monica runs out the back door of their house and gets in her car, to drive to the Blitzkrieg house. On the way there she drives past the Motor-Karlsen home just next door where Kleopatra and her family lives, and sure enough it looks dark and quiet, so Lise Veronica probably isn't there. She's not 100 % sure that's where her daughter actually is, but where else other than the Blitzkrieg house could she be? Apart from the gym and the pubs that she can't get into anyway, there aren't to many places to hang out at this hour, and she's not very likely to be at the gym...
She runs into the house and down into the basement where she knows the music room is, to find Lise Veronica now practicing the drums.
Monica: Lise Veronica! Put down the drumsticks, you're coming home with me!
Lise Veronica: But mom.. It's friday night and there's no school tomorrow.. can't I just stay out a little while longer? I have already done my homework, I did it earlier today..
Monica: No, you're coming home with me. Bedtime is bedtime, and you shouldn't be out now.
Lise Veronica: That's not fair mom! I'm not a five year old, you don't have to treat me like a baby!
Monica: You're still to young to be out at this hour, so that's not up for discussion! Now come with me and get in the car, I'm taking you home.
Lise Veronica: But mom.. I was just learning to play the drums! Monica: The drums aren't going anywhere. Now you're coming with me, or I'll forbid you to go back here!
Lise Veronica: Fine then, but this is dumb! Monica: Just get in the car.
Well, Monica isn't giving her much of a choice, so if she wants to go back to those drums again, she has to follow... of course, this doesn't go by without people noticing, and it seems gossip is already spreading..
Translation of pop-up textbox: "Some say that Lise Veronica Motor-Notesen has a guilty conscience. Can it be true?"
Back home Monica tells her daughter to go to bed for the second time, before Lise Veronica once more lashes out at her moms, in her eyes, lack of intelligence..
Monica: Enough! You've been out all day without letting us know where you were going, you don't come home at night, and you refuse to get in the car when I come to pick you up! And on top of that, you're now going to insult me and call me stupid! Go to your room!
Monica: You have to understand, we're not doing this to be mean or because we're stupid.. we're your parents, we're worried about you! We just want to know that you're doing well, and that nothing happens to you.. you know?
Lise Veronica: Maybe... but I thought I could stay out longer since I became older? And I'm sorry about the thing I said about the tv earlier, it's actually not so bad.. I'm sorry mom, but I just want to be like the other big girls, you know.. why aren't their parents there to pick them up?
Monica: Well, I can't really tell you that.. Maybe it's because they're older, or maybe because their parents just don't care as much?
Monica: Now listen, if you can prove to me now that you can be responsible, always let me know where you're going and for how long you're gonna stay and be home in time, I might just let you stay out a little longer eventually... but you're gonna have to prove it to me, first. Again, I'm not doing this because I want to be mean, but you've gotta learn to act responsibly and care for yourself properly, before I can begin to let you off the hook. You got that?
Lise Veronica: I think so, mom...
Monica: Good! And don't forget to brush your teeth before going to bed!
Lise Veronica: Ok mom...
Phew! Well, finally she went to bed, and peace could be restored in the Motor-Notesen home. It seems she can be a bit of a handful at times that one, but hmm.. I'm sure she'll grow into a decent adult being one day! She's definately still very young and has a lot left to learn! :P
Chapter 19.3 – Sunset Valley March 2023: part III – Just a rainy day.
This is a slow 'inbetween' update where I decided to mostly just watch the family for a day while waiting for the next day where Lise Veronica will go to the school ball (if she behaves properly and her mother allows her to go, that is.;) )
It was a rainy morning in Sunset Valley, and the family slept for well into the day since they stayed up so late last night waiting for Lise Veronica to come home..
Thomas the toddler-child was as usual the first one to wake up to do his morning routine of going into his sisters bedroom to play with the building blocks.
Ivar woke up next to feed him by the staircase, after trying three times, because he thought Thomas wanted to go downstairs. However, as most toddlers, he would just sit on top of the staircase looking down thinking it was a little to scary for him still...
Monica was having a few issues to when she woke up. In all the stress of yesterday night she had forgotten to take care of her own needs before going to bed..
..but it's nothing that can't be fixed, and after having done a very satisfying number one (you probably know the feeling!), mother and daughter go downstairs to have breakfast in their own way. Mom is being clever and eating the leftovers, but Lise Veronica insists on learning how to cook, so she goes to make her own serving. :P
Thomas wants some attention from his sister and asks her for a hug. Monica pays close attention to her daughters cooking.. "Don't forget you got something in the oven...."
Ivar vaguely suggests the idea to send Lise Veronica off to the LeFromage Art Boarding school.. "I think what she needs is a good creative outlet, you know. Something that will take her mind off of doing pranks and other mischief..."
Due to the poor spring weather outside, the family pretty much decided to spend their day indoors in their pyjamas, with Monica and Lise Veronica watching tv and Ivar teaching his son about the notes of the xylophone.
Just the other day Ivar had also realized he had to buy a washing machine to go with the tumble drier, and well, he also finally became a victim of one of Lise Veronicas pranks..
Ivar is a pretty laid back guy, usually, so he didn't say much about the prank, and Monica wanted to make sure Lise Veronica knew how to use her phone to let her know where she was going if she wasn't coming home after school..
After spending a good few hours just watching tv, Monica decided she wanted to upgrade the newly bought washing machine to be more durable as well..
While Monica was out of the room, Lise Veronica complained to her father about what her mom just said about using her phone to let her know where she was going just the same moment her phone rang..
It was Kristina Reppe that called her, and wanted to invite her to the school ball. Lise Veronica accepted the invitaton, and it seems that was a good choice, as they were listed as old friends. She also immediately afterwards wanted to give Kristina a gift.
A little later Monica gets an invitation, too. Kathrine Kråke-Karlsen was having a party and wanted her to come over.
Lise Veronica: Don't stay up to late, mom...
Monica didn't listen much to her daughters remark, and off she went, out into the rainy sunset.. :P
Kathrine lives in this house by the beach on Sunnyside Boulevard 477. The house was built by her husband Jonathans parents Asgeir and Lucie Karlsen meant to be used as a cottage for them after they got insanely rich from their careers as a painter/writer (Asgeir) and a doctor (Lucie). However this was before their relationship went south and they divorced...
The memory they both hold of their divorce. This is an actual memory, from early on in my game before I started taking screenshots. I still have this in my memory too, but it plays out more like a video...because I had never seen something like that in game before.. they had been fighting for quite a while before this event. She came home from work, and as soon as she stepped foot on the lot, he immediately stopped whatever he was about to do and ran out the door and divorced right then and there!
Later the house by the beach was then handed over to Jonathan when he became a young adult and was ready to move out on his own. This may in part also explain his younger sister Sofies grumpy demeanor... Well, that, and how she as a toddler overheard her parents violently arguing and then physically fighting each other in their library room while she was playing with her toys, shortly before their divorce..
This might be Asgeirs memory after their most vicious fight in the library room while they were still married... a fight which he lost, by the way..
Well, enough about the old wounds from the past... The first thing Monica does when she enters the party, is to go upstairs into Jonathan and Kathrines bedroom, where they have a small office as well, to find a book to read. They also have a pretty big bookshelf in the living room, so that should've been uneccesary, but you know.. sims. :P
Amena was also at the party, talking enthusiastically about the garden she was going to have once her new home was finished. She was in Jonathan and Kathrines workout room along with Bebe Hart-Bunch, and their oldes daughter, Ingrid.
Monicas mother Eirin was also there, in the kitchen talking to Morten about cartoons, before she walks into the living room to say hi to Monica and turn on some music.
..and back home, well, maybe Lise Veronica was right about the tv all along, because it looks like it broke, so Ivar and her had to resort to pillow fighting each other instead for entertainment...
Bebe Hart-Bunch had gone into the living room to entertain everyone with playing guitar (acoustic of course! She never touch an electric guitar, much to high tech...) Monica was still reading that book. It turns out it was a very thick book about some medicine related topic.. It was likely one of Kathrines books since she works at the hospital.
What is interesting, but typical, is that neither Kathrine nor Jonathan was actually at home when the party began, only their son Morten, until Jonathan came home a good while later.. Bebe was still playing guitar, and Monica was still reading that book. :P
Back home Ivar had called for a repair person to come fix the tv, but it seems they have now discovered a past time that was much more fun than always watching tv... :P
Monica finally put the book down to notice that her mom was in the room, and it looks like Kathrine had come home too.
Bebe was still going strong and entertaining them with the guitar. I think the guy cheering on the left is Connor Frio, but I'm not entirely sure. The woman with the same hair as Bebe is not a clone of hers, but Ine Melhus. She was Asgeirs girlfriend for a while after the divorce, until he dumped because she was to childish, always playing with Jonathan and Sofies toys....
Morten wants Eirin to read him a bedtime story, but as she approaches the bookshelf, she gets a little nervous about something that makes her forget what she was about to do, so he goes to ask his sister instead..
..but she forgets about it too, because she's much more excited about being invited to a party by her own mom. They talk about kids toys and shoes for a while, before Ingrid wants to take a selfie with her.
Kathrine is pregnant, and Ingrid just got a boyfriend, so there might be things on the way.
"Look your best, mom!"
And while they were taking a picture of themselves, all the other guests except Monica had gone home, so she now took over the guitar duties, playing totally out of tune and sync with the stereo..
It was getting really late now, so Ivar put Thomas to bed before going to sleep, but Lise Veronica...?
Nope, she wasn't going to bed! Dad hadn't said anything, and mom was still out!
But she would probably go home soon, as Kathrine started to feel sick, said the party was over and told Monica and Ingrid to leave..
Monica wanted to talk to Ingrid about her career in politics, but Ingrid, the snob, didn't want to discuss politics with someone of lesser intelligence like Monica..
Monica: Argh! What's wrong with you youngsters! If you were my daughter... I'm not gonna take being called stupid all the time!
"I'm out of here..."
Monica: Lise Veronica.. it's 4 in the morning! Why aren't you in bed?
Lise Veronica: I was just waiting for you, mom.. where have you been?
Monica: I've been over at Kathrines house, like I told you..
Lise Veronica: But how come you can stay up so late, mom..?
Monica: Because I'm an adult. Now, do you want to go to that ball tomorrow?
Lise Veronica: Yes of course, mom!
Monica: Then go to bed and get yourself some sleep! And don't forget to brush your teeth...
Lise Veronica: Well ok then mom....
"Yawn... I think it's bedtime for me too now...good night..."
Chapter 19.3 – Sunset Valley March 2023: part IV – The school ball..
It was a beatiful and sunny morning in Sunset Valley, with Ivar and Thomas being the first ones to get out of bed for some skill practice. Thomas continued with his habit of going into his sisters room to play with the toy building blocks, and Ivar chose to sharpen his mind outside with the chess table.
..and the ladies of the house slept until way past sunrise.
But that was alright, because Thomas and Ivar enjoyed their time alone, man to man, just father and son.
This was the day of the school ball, so naturally planning what to wear was the first thing on Lise Veronicas mind when she woke up...
She's not going to wear it until tonight, but she has to try it on anyway, and of course, also plan the make up, and just in general freshen up the face.
"Hmmm... yeah, I think this should do. Now I just have to wipe it off again.. I'm not gonna wear this make-up in front of mom and dad..."
Hmm, the growing season in Sunset Valley definately works a little different from what I'm used to. It's only spring time, but Monicas vegetables seem ripe for the picking already...
Inside Ivar was playing his video games when Lise Veronica had something she wanted to ask him.
Lise Veronica: Dad.. I was browsing on the school computers just the other day, and I came across this site where you can adopt cats and kittens.. and they had the cutest cat there. A little kitten called Pelsdott.. They had even posted videos of her, she was so cute. Can we adopt her, dad?
Pelsdott translates to Furball in english
Ivar: Oh, sure.. why not? If you really want a cat, I think that can be fixed. Did they have a phone number? Lise Veronica: Oh, yes, sure, I saved it on my phone.. can I make the call to adopt little Pelsdott? Ivar: Sure, go ahead.
Lise Veronica didn't hesitate to make the call, and she was happy to have asked dad and not mom. She wasn't really sure if mom would have said yes, and if she did, she would probably have a list of conditions that came with it.. Dad was much easier this way!
Lise Veronica then heads upstairs to take a shower to get ready for the school ball, and makes a strange face on the way... Lise Veronica: Haaaa, I'm going to get a cat! Thomas (thinking): My sister is weird...
Then a taxi parks outside, and out comes Kristina Reppe. Monica is still out working in the garden, so she goes over to her to talk.
Shortly thereafter another car stops on the road by their house. A woman that none of them have seen before walks out of the car and up to Monica to introduce herself.
Woman: Hi, I'm Guro Melbye from the animal shelter. I'm here with Pelsdott, the kitten you adopted. Was it you I talked to on the phone?
Kristina: Oh! You've adopted a kitten!! Can I see it?? Where is it??
Monica: A kitten? Hmm, that must have been my daughter..
Monica: Will it um...? Does it scratch?
Monica was a little concerned about suddenly having a kitten in the house. She was worried about needing to use band aids..
Guro Melbye: Oh, just be careful when you bathe it, and it should be alright..
Monica: Bathe it? Oh.. yes, of course..
Monica (thinking): .. I think I'll leave the bathing to Lise Veronica..
While they are talking, a taxi is seen leaving in the background, leaving from Eivind (Monicas brother) and Sofies house just next door.
That's Kleopatra, their daughter and Lise Veronicas cousing, going to the school ball. Kristina notices the taxi, and who is sitting in it, and feels a little bad on Kleopatras behalf.
Kristina (thinking): Poor Kleopatra, going alone to the school ball in a taxi.. maybe she couldn't get a date, or maybe she was stood up..
Then a car is heard honking outside their lot too, and whoa, that is some transportation! That can't have been cheap to rent...
Monica had walked inside and commanded Ivar to go out and pick up Pelsdott. She didn't want to touch the kitten, in case it would scratch or bite... Lise Veronica had heard the honking, and walked outside to talk to Kristina.
Lise Veronica: I just adopted a kitten today! She's called Pelsdott, and she's just so cute and adorable!
Kristina: That is so sweet! I saw the lady that came here and dropped her off! I saw the kitten too, it looked so cute!
Kristina: We don't have a kitten at home, I never thought about that, but we have a baby! My little sister Emmy is the cutest baby ever!
Yeah.. that's all fine and dandy, but girls.. that limo keeps honking for you, why won't you get in?
Well, after much talking and goofing about, Lise Veronica finally figures out that she has to put on her dress and get inside the limo to go to the school ball..
Lise Veronica: Are you coming Kristina? I think we have to go now, so we won't be late...
Kristina: Oh, oh.. yes, of course.. the limo!
I guess it's a thing with sims that they sometimes are a little absent minded, even if they aren't.. that's when the powers above sometimes has to interfere and guide them a little, so that they get to do what they want to do..
EDIT: Got it to work with NRaas Master Controller and Dreamer. I had both mods installed and finally realized I could use them to get the date to get in the limo. For anyone else that has this problem, here's what I did:
1. Paused the game.
2. City Hall->NRaas->Master Controller->Settings->Retain Dreams and Opportunities (set to true). (There's a warning about using this when switching between many households, but I only wanted to switch for a few minutes and then turn this off. This setting requires NRaas Dreamer AFAIK.)
3. Clicked on the date, NRaas->Master Controller->Make Active
4. Unpaused the game until the date's household was active, then paused again.
5. Canceled his current action (which was doing homework).
6. Queued him up to change into formal wear.
7. Clicked on the limo and chose Go To Prom.
8. Unpaused the game until he changed outfits and headed to the limo.
9. Clicked on another member of the family I was playing and chose NRaas->Make Active. Let the game play until my family was active again and the date was in the limo, which left for the prom immediately after he got in.
10. Paused the game, City Hall->NRaas->Master Controller->Settings->Retain Dreams and Opportunities (set to false).
11. Unpaused the game.
..but they made it, just in time, and so the ball could begin...
..and then they leave us, and we won't get to follow them inside...
With the kids at the school ball, Monica returned to working in her garden. It feels quite relaxing now, when she no longer believes her plants are wire tapped by the government..
"I can't believe I used to think that... well, I'm glad I don't anymore.. Gardening is actually quite enjoyable.. I just hope the girls are behaving properly at the school ball!"
Oh, don't worry mom, I think the girls are doing just fine and enjoying themselves....
And then someone popped a question...(here begin the pop-ups..)
Translation: Lise Veronica briefed with some smooth dancing steps when Kristina asked her if they should be together!
Now.. I would prefer that anything that had to do with romantic relationships were left completely up to the sims, you know, to avoid things going wrong and violent break-ups, as seen in the past... or if it should happen anyway, it won't be my fault....but when a question like this shows up, I just can't say no... and since this was already their doing, because Kristina asked Lise Veronica to go to the ball.. I had her say yes, and they now got their first romance!
And it just got better from there, no way this night could go wrong!
Translation: All of Lise Veronicas friends was envious with her! She just got crowned the ball queen! Careful, you might end up having a girl fight!
Translation: Kristina convinced Lise Veronica that a meteorite was on it's way, and that they had to kiss as fast as possible. Lise Veronica decided to give in, and was positively surprised.
First kiss!
A sims first kiss can make them feel joy for a long time afterwards.
+ 40 mood.
Time left: 24 hours.
Translation: Lise Veronica impresses Kristina with the chicken dance, there's no doubt about it! Kristina also began to dance it! This duo has chemistry!
Well, now we're getting silly here... :P
While Lise Veronica and Kristina really enjoyed themselves at the school ball, Ivar had to go out shopping for some new items for the latest member of the family..
..and the little pelsdott/furball was sleeping peacefully on the lawn.
On the beach just below their house, Kristinas father Jarle Reppe was spreading some inappropriate gossip to Robert-Bråge (Ranveigs son and Lise Veronicas cousin).
Jarle: I heard Olivia Frydenlund was caught red handed woohooing inside the town hall!
He didn't excactly like what he heard... "That's gross...." he replied...
..but back at the school ball things were going great for the remainder of the evening.
Monica went to check out the new toilet for the kitten, and it made her cry!
I'm not sure how to explain that reaction, to be honest... does the kitten really scare you that much?
"Poor cat.. having to relieve themselves in such a cheap litter box.... it's just a box with sand.. a cheap box with sand..."
Right.. well, umm, that's what cats are supposed to do, Monica... I don't think the cat really cares about the price tag on it... sorry not sorry, but I'm not feeling you here!
Well, she didn't sob for long, of course, and was soon back to playing video games. Ivar thought it was bedtime for Thomas, and picked him up to put him to sleep.
Outside the school, the ball was now finished and the kids were leaving through the back door. Lise Veronica ran up to Kristina to give her a friendly hug before they would part ways for the night.
..but this made Kristina want to give Lise Veronica a cheesy comment..
Kristina: You are as beautiful as the sky, the clouds and the sun... Lise Veronica: Aww, hehe...
Lise Veronica: Hey, Kristina! Look, there, on the wall! Isn't that a drop of water?
Kristina: What?
Lise Veronica: I think it's going to rain soon! Those beautiful clouds might just dump a real soaking!
* splash *
Kristina: Oh, I'll get you for this! Mom is not gonna like it if I come home soaked in these nice clothes!
This could have ended in them having a water balloon fight, but Lise Veronica gets distracted because Olivia Ursine decides to entertain everyone in front of the school with her guitar.
Margrethe and Kleopatra joins her watching, and Kristina sits down in the back to do her homework..
Then Lise Veronicas phone rings, and of course it's...
"...mom. Yes.. yes, mom, I'll be.. I'll be right home.. Yes, yes, mom..."
When the curfew is up and mom calls you gotta go home. Ivar and Thomas was already in bed, only Monica was up, waiting for her daughter.
Monica: So, how did the ball go? Did you have fun?
Lise Veronica: Oh yes, mom! We had a great time! They crowned me the queen of the ball, and we were like the celebrities of the ball! It was really great mom!
Monica: That sounds really great! Look, maybe, if you want to take your new friend Kristina to the movies one day, I can buy you the tickets.. if you promise to not do any pranks this week!
Lise Veronica: That's cool, mom.. I think I'm done doing pranks now, and I think it's time I go to bed..
Lise Veronica: I'll go brush my teeth now! Good night, mom!
Monica (thinking): Oh, I'm so proud.. what a beutiful daughter, I didn't even have to tell her to go to bed this time!
Well, she forgot to take her make up off before going to bed, but that's not so important. And now everyone in the family is sleeping peacefully... well, almost...
Good night.
Bonus pictures:
Since Lise Veronica and Kristina was dressed up so nicely, a little photo shoot had to be arranged before the school ball could start.
Close up of their faces.
I experimented with adding some light, because I thought it was to dark with them standing in the shadow.
However, I ended up liking the darker pictures more anyway. Will try with a weaker light next time I do a photoshoot of sims. :P
Their prom picture.
For the next update(s) there will be more teenagers, as it will be Robert Bråges (Ranveig Motorsens son) turn to age up, and shortly thereafter also Bjørn-Yngve (Helene and Knuts son). They won't be going to a school ball yet though, because it has already happened while they were just to young for it.. :P
Chapter 19.3 – Sunset Valley March 2023: part V – Robert Bråges birthday
This year is gonna be heavy on the birthday celebrations, and now it's time for Ranveigs youngest son to celebrate his..
Sim profile: Full name: Robert Bråge Motorsen Date of birth: March 17th, 2010. Personality traits: Loves the outdoors, genius, absent minded. Family tree:
Family relations among my sims are sometimes a little complicated, as Robert Bråge only has half-brothers, and his brothers again have each their half sister (not included in this tree, because they are not related to Robert Bråge directly...).
– Morning Moments -
As this day began, the birthday child was sleeping in his bed at his and Ranveig (and Oliver Freddys home) at Mosquite Cove, dreaming of one his favorite thing in the world..the outdoors..
Ranveig, the hopeless romantic with two failed relationships behind her, did what she usually does on her days off.. wake up and turn on the romance channel... And just like with her sister Monica, this is actually the first time I see Ranveig in her sleepwear.. Before she used to always sleep in her swimsuit. In fact, her swimsuit was her favourite outfit for most occasions, except for when she was actually swimming, go figure...
..but she is also quite the wonder woman, doing really well in her journalism career, battling her inner demons while fulfilling her goal in life to become a Legend in the world of chess, and being a good mom raising two children all on her own..
Ranveig is no doubt really proud of her achievements as a top ranked chess player, but her biggest pride and joy in life is her sons. She would do anything for them, and with her oldest son at university studying science, she has academic hopes for her youngest one as well..
..and though he has of late taken up an interest in writing science fiction, so far the outdoors is where he says he belongs.. He's not the biggest fan of school, and would rather go swim in the ocean than do his homework. However, mom insists, no swimming before all the homework is done! Luckily for him, the genius trait have been passed down through the generations from his grandma and his mom, so his homework is usually done almost in no time, and he almost always gets an A in school..
So mom lets him off the hook, and won't push him to hard. She doesn't want him to grow tired of school, but she's not giving up her hopes of him going to university one day too... Besides, his interest in outdoor living is a golden ticket to somewhere down the road perhaps make him interested in learning about the natural sciences, so instead she promises once again that they'll go fishing later in the pond by the science center..
..but when he asks about her regular visits to the doctors office with aunt Monica and cousin Lise Veronica, she becomes silent. He knows what it is though, he has read the description on her pill box in the medicine cabinet... but he still has lots of questions. Since both his mom, his brother, his grandmother, his cousin, and even both of his uncles seem to have it.. he wonders, is he going to get it too? Ranveig doesn't know the answer to that question, but she sure hopes he doesn't.. The truth is that he can get it, and as such the periods around age transitions are always a little nerve wrecking.. Is he going to inherit it? Or is he not?
Ranveig didn't want to think to much about that now, and decided to distract herself by heading outside to do a solid workout instead..
Robert Bråge finished a plate of moms french toast for his late breakfast, before he went outside to practice some different openings on the chess table. Ranveig never encouraged him directly to follow in her footsteps to become a chess player, but since he both has the genius trait and his seen her play and all the prices she has won, it has still inspired him to see if he can make it too. And what can be better for the outdoors loving wonderchild than to practice chess out in the open air?
Robert Bråge is similar to both his parents in many ways, and as such isn't one to rest on his laurels. The young mind is already full of ideas, and though he is currently only 12 years old, he has already started writing his first science fiction novel. He writes a few more pages which he sends in to the publisher, which rewards him the standard sum of 15 simoleons for the job.
Ranveig was upstairs watching kids cartoons on tv, when it was time to invite people for his birthday party.
Guests were invited/sorted by social relation (minus the grandparents, they had to be invited either way).
Then it was time to prepare for the party. Ranveig hung up some lights outside, hoping that the weather would hold up. With this many people, she thought it would be to cramped to celebrate inside.. and of course, she went out and bought a birthday cake, a buffet table and ordered pizza.. and went outside to pick up this flamingo, even though it was already standing upright. Just in case.
Then she went upstairs and cleaned the toilet, before going downstairs again to turn on some music, just in time for the first guest to arrive..
- Arrival of the guests -
..and the first guest is.. a complete stranger. I have never seen this woman before, but her name is Anna Furulund.. She probably knows of the family and somehow heard of the party, but she isn't on top of their friends list. Maybe she is a new inhabitant of the town, just looking to make some new friends.. well, I suppose, and why not? :P
Bjørn Sveum, one of Roberts friends from school is next. Another person whom I don't really know all that well, but atleast I have seen him before, so he's not a total stranger. He was also invited to Lise Veronicas party.
Then comes the grandparents, Ingmar and Eirin. Roberts other set of grandparents (Jørund and Leonora on his fathers side) werent invited, because they live in a different town further to the north called. An old mining town called Dole Plains, right by the Appaloosian Mountains.
The next guest is Margrethe Holm-Fredriksen, a friend of the family and the daughter of Ranveigs ex, Fredrik Holm-Fredriksen. She comes along with a random stray dog and the pizza delivery.
Margrethe is quickly followed by Kleopatra Motor-Karlsen (Roberts cousin) and Kristina Reppe (a friend of the family).
Then comes Bjørn-Yngve and Lise Veronica (both cousins). Lise Veronica is a little bummed she didn't get an invitation... "..I thought we were family? How come Kristina was invited, and not me?"
Iselin Reppe, Kristinas mother (in the pink/purple hoodie) also shows up uninvited, and it looks like she has neglected her own personal hygiene.. Grandma Eirin smells this, and finds it so appalling, she almost leaves the party, but luckily she changes her mind shortly before going off the edge of the lot..
"She should've showered before she got here, but I can't leave my grandchilds birthday party just because of one smelly guest..."
Ranveig picks up and serves the pizza, while people gather in groups, some inside and some outside the house.
Then finally Morten has arrived as the second last of the invited guests to show up. Leni Wennewold showed up some time later, but by then there were already many things going on at once, so I missed it.
----
Another uninvited guest is this guy, Hogne Nielsen, inappropriately flirting with the new unknown woman, Anna Furulund. I don't like it, and it makes me think Ingrid should find a better boyfriend.. after all, Ingrid is one of the sims I care about, not these random people. ..but I'll keep my hands off, and let her/them figure this out on their own... (..but I hope she finds out and confronts him about it..)
- The main event -
Well, anyway, not the clock is there, and it's time for the major event. Margrethe is first on the spot, cheering enthusiastically. It does t takes a while for everyone else inside the house to realize what's going on and join in, though.
Lise Veronica, Kleopatra and the stray dog joins in. Robert Bråge doesn't really want to wait, so he makes a wish before deciding to blow out the candles.. No time to wait for mom..
..but then Ranveig finally shows up, after she managed to escape a conversation with the smelly Iselin Reppe.
Ranveig is happy that her son has already become a genius, now she just hopes he doesn't get the unfortunate trait of the family. There is still a chance that he can inherit it, either directly from Ranveig or that it will be passed on from his grandmother (but still through Ranveig).
Sim genealogy
Whenever one of my sims age up, they can inherit any of the traits that their parents have, but also any of the traits that their grandparents have. This is because the traits of a parent will always be passed on to the child, but from the adult stage, they can only have a total of five active traits, usually. All other traits will be considered dormant or passive, but can still be passed on to the next generation. This means that sometimes a trait may appear to skip a generation. For instance, Ranveigs mother Eirin has the lucky trait as an active trait, but Ranveig does not, however, she may still pass this on to any of her children.
The likelihood of inheriting a trait increases of both a grandparent and a parent has the same trait, and likewise, it would increase again if both parents have the trait, and so on...
In Robert Bråges case, there is a total of 17 unique traits he can inherit from his parents and grandparents on both sides. The total trait slots from all of his parents/grandparents are 30, but since many traits are shared, there are only 17 unique ones. Excluding the three traits he already has, that narrows it down to 14 inheritable traits, on 21 different trait slots.
However, traits inherited directly from parents has twice the probability of being inherited, compared to traits from his grandparents, so in practice it will be in this case 14 traits on 29 slots (parents slots are counted twice). I hope you're still with me....
'The unfortunate trait' is found in his grandmother and mother, though now passive in his mother since she went to the doctor, which means the likelihood fo getting that trait would be 3 out of 29, or just a little over 10 percent. So there is a chance, but not to high...
"Oooh... here we go..."
"Heeey, this is almost like snowboarding..."
"Well... this is me now, I hope you like it...."
Robert Bråge didn't get the lucky trait, but he was still lucky, as he inherited the charismatic trait found in both his mom, Ranveig, his grandmother Eirin, and his grandfather Jørund, so he had a higher chance of getting that one (4 out of 29 or roughly 14 %).
Hooray! Time for cake! Grandfather in the background decides to play some bass, however, I think he's doing it more because he knows the effect those low notes has on his wife, and not because he wants to celebrate his grandchild...
Ranveig can breathe a little easier now, as her youngest son, atleast so far, hasn't inherited 'the unfortunate trait', as she chooses to stand by herself eating her cake.. "Hmm, there was one thing I forgot.. to have enough sitting space for everyone, but it's ok.. I can stand over here, and I'll try to remember it next time.."
Robert Bråge practices his new found charisma by telling a funny story to grandpa.
Ranveig complains to her mom about having to do the dishes, with so many guests over at the house eating..
..but Eirin doesn't offer her daughter to much sympathy, and commands her to start cleaning up right away. A mother will always be a mother. It doesn't matter that Ranveig is 45 years old and has achieved most of her life goals already, which includes having two children of her own... Mom still isn't finished raising her child! Only difference now is she can't impose a curfew on her and tell her to go to bed! :P This is probably where Ranveigs sister Monica got her parenting skills from...
..but just like Ranveig is proud of her sons, Eirin is also very proud of her oldest daughter Ranveig, and her achievements. She knows her daughter has had a pretty hard life, and that only makes her more proud.
Downstairs Lise Veronica is showing off her smooth chicken dance moves by dancing with Hogne Nielsen, before she goes outside to discuss her favorite food with her aunt Ranveig. :P
"My favorite is grilled salmon. What's yours?"
"Surprise stew has always been my favorite, ever since I was a child."
The mood is pleasant, until Lise Veronica shows her mean side..
"Surprise stew? Ha! What a stupid low grade dish! Is that all you can make? You're stupid!"
Ranveig: Whoa...
Ranveig: You need to learn to watch your mouth, there! You can't just call people stupid like that out of the blue! Keep this up, and I'll have a word with your mom....
Yeah, Lise Veronica sometimes is a handful to deal with.. she'll probably grow out of this with time, lets hope... She seems quite unlike her girlfriend Kristina, which is much nicer, because instead of being offensive, she just helped out doing dishes inside, and even took out the trash.. now that's a good guest!
Why can't everyone be sweet like you? :P
- Ending -
It's still early in the evening, but the party is coming to an end soon. The uninvited lady (and the stray dog) has already left, and now grandfather Ingmar is also leaving, along with Kristinas mother Iselin, and Bjørn Sveum, one of Roberts friends from school. The verdict from everyone is really positive, though, and this party has been most enjoyable.
Ranveig has squared it up with Lise Veronica outside. Threatening to tell Monica made her calm down.. She didn't want mom to come pick her up again. Ingrids boyfriend Hogne Nielsen also left the party, which leaves only Robert Bråge inside with his cousin and his grandma watching him play video games. :P
Not trying to paint a bad picture of Lise Veronica, she is a nice girl too a lot of the time, but she definately is quite sassy on occasion as well. Her cousin Kleopatra in the back there probably isn't a saint all the time either, for her own reasons... but atleast everyone has really enjoyed the party so far.
Robert Bråge eventually got tired of aging up, and went to bed almost remarkably early. Well, I guess celebrating ones birthday can be a little exhausting. Then I thought it was only Ranveig, her mother, Leni, Morten and Bjørn-Yngve (he's outside on the porch playing with a toy) left, until Margrethe suddenly comes walking down the stairs.
She is usually not among the most reclusive, yet she had snuck away to watch tv upstairs after the candles got blown out. So I forgot about her for a while, but hey, looks like she had fun too.
The kids eventually leave, and now it's only Ranveig and her mother Eirin still left inside. Ranveig then asks her mom for a hand with the dishes and cleaning up, but then she remembers that her husband is at home, probably waiting for her, so..
"... I had a really good time, but sorry, I gotta go..."
Ranveig enjoys some quiet time by herself eating her favorite meal, before she prepares herself to clean up everything and unleash a metaphorical meteor strike to send home Bjørn Yngve, that appears to have gotten stuck in the jurassic period still playing with the dinosaur toy on the porch...
When she walks around cleaning the house, it has finally quieted down enough so that she can hear water running from somewhere, and that's usually not a good sign.. She locates the source in the bathroom upstairs. Of course, someone clumsy had just managed to break the bathroom sink..
..but luckily Ranveig is pretty handy, just like her sister Monica, so she fixes the sink all on her own without calling for someone to repair it, and decides to upgrade to be come unbreakable while she's at it..
Phew! It's been a long day for Ranveig, but finally at two in the night she gets her well deserved rest too.. good night.
Now prepare yourself for another birthday, because only five days later (on the sims timeline) the toy dinosaur paleontologist child Bjørn Yngve will have his 13th birthday and Sunset Valley will get yet another teenager...
Chapter 19.3 – Sunset Valley March 2023: part VI – Bjørn Yngves birthday
This is the second to last teenage birthday for Sunset Valley this year, as the next one won't be until October (on their timeline) when it's Mortens turn to enter his 13th year. However, there will be two more birthdays before then where a couple of toddlers will age up to children, the next one already next month... With so many birthdays, maybe I should go a little easier on them and not dedicate an entire update for each persons birthday, yet I do feel that these are significant events that should be marked properly. Hmm. Oh well, here we go..
Sim profile: Full name: Bjørn-Yngve Kråke-Motorsen Date of birth: March 22nd , 2010. Personality traits: Easily impressed, genius, inappropriate. Family tree:
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Bjørn-Yngves family lives in this house on 378 Skyborough Boulevard. In my language the adress is Himmelstien 378 which would directly translate to "Heavenly Path 378", hence back in the day the town council thought it to be appropriate to build a new graveyard on an empty lot close by their house..
Heavenly Path Graveyard and Mausoleum, 415 Skyborough Blvd. The mausoleum houses the urnstones of all the sims that have died so far and everytime I see it, it reminds me of the most depressing moment of me playing the sims.. Early on, I played rotationally and with aging off, which meant that I had to make the rounds and take on the role of the grim reaper himself to make sure that everyone who was supposed to die, did so when their time was up... I wept internally for each and every one of them....
Since the family lives so close to the graveyard, it's inevitable that certain eerie sounds accompanied by music is heard during the night.. so I found it natural to follow these sounds and hang out at the graveyard, while waiting for the family to wake up, which resulted in the recording seen above..
The sound of ghosts isn't the only thing heard in the night, because as I check up on this family, they all have a recent bad memory of their house being burgled.. I look around to see if anything is missing, but I can't see anything. I don't have a full overview of every item in their house, so something migh be gone, but I couldn't figure out what it was.
So I just assume that it wasn't anything important, and carry on...
Helene is the first one to wake up, to take care of Anton, and stroll around at home in her underwear. Helene is a bit of a snob that values appearance (to the outside world), but when she is at home with just her family she relaxes a lot more and shows her true self. :P
Bjørn-Yngve wakes up next, and goes into his mom's writing den to cheer excitedly. Helene is also a creative person that enjoys writing, painting and photography. This could be why he is cheering, but I think it's more him being excited about playing king on the chair, like kids always do..
Helene used to work at the day spa, before it became possible to sign up to various freelance jobs for the more ambitions minded sims, and as such she doesn't have fixed work hours, which just allows her to chill in her underwear a little longer..
Not the same for Bjørn-Yngve and her husband Knut, that have to get up and ready for work and school. Knut has gone into the kitchen to prepare breakfast, before going to work at the town hall. The only reason for him working in the politcal career is so that he can take advantage of his charismatic personality and strategic mind.. His real life goal, however, was simply to max out his skills in handiness and logic, which he has already achieved.
The boys eating breakfast. (I wanted to show this one, since they ate at the same time. Of course, they can't sit at the same table... yet...)
Then Bjørn-Yngve hops on the school bus for his last day at school as a 12 year old and an elementary school pupil. Helene and Knut eat their breakfast, and Helene has to subtly ask Knut when he will get his next pay rise, so that she can buy more expensive things for the house..
"Helene, that's not how it works.. I can't ask for a pay rise all the time. I already got one last month..! Besides, I'm a politician... we have to show some restraint, or people might start protesting or even rioting....and we don't really want that..."
Then it's off to work for Knut. Showing restraint or not, he's got a pretty fancy ride, though. A 2016 Lexus IS 350 F Sport to be excact.. fitting for a guy with Motorsen as his last name. My sims like their fancy cars... :P
Helene spends the day finishing up the job of teaching Anton talk, ensuring that he learns all the important things of course. Repeat after me... "Daddy has a really fancy red car, and all the neighbours are really impressed...."
"Don't be afraid of the ghosts you hear at night, they're just people that once used to live in town, just like you and me..."
After finishing the job of teaching him to talk, she goes upstairs to the balcony to finish a painting she started a good while ago, as well as increasing her painting skills. One step towards her goal of mastering painting and writing..
Then it's time to invite everyone for the birthday party. She insists that they wear their finest clothing, jewelry and sparkling diamonds if they have.. let's make it a sparkling party to impress the neighbours and have everyone talking for weeks.
Guest list:
George Alnuman (10 yrs, friend)
Ingrid Kråke-Karlsen (21 yrs, cousin)
Morten Kråke-Karlsen (12 yrs, cousin)
Egil Kråkesen (71 yrs, grandfather mothers side)
Frida Kråkesen (66 yrs, grandmother mothers side)
Lise Veronica Motor-Notesen (13 yrs, cousin)
Eirin Motorsen (68 yrs, grandmother fathers side)
Ingmar Motorsen (70 yrs, grandfather fathers side)
Robert Bråge Motorsen (13 yrs, cousin)
Kristina Reppe (14 yrs, friend).
PS: Eveyone is given the title they have in relation to the birthday child, e.g. When someone is called grandfather throughout this update, that's because they are Bjørn-Yngves grandfather, not necessarily the grandfather of whomever else they might interact with.
Bjørn-Yngve is still at school and won't be home for some hours more, as he also has to attend the boy scouts. This leaves plenty of time for the parents to decorate and clean up the place to make it as shiny as possible.. can't have these kids toys lying around all over the place...
The first guest to arrive is this lady, Valborg Ulstein. She is one of the maids in town. Since my storyline of playing Sunset Valley began in 1977, the original maids Kate Pistachio and Grady Elfman have since retired. Their whereabouts are unknown, if they are even still alive. Well, anyway, this new maid first greets Helene with a friendly smile, before going into a small fit of rage. I'm not sure why, because Helene just cleaned the house! Or maybe that's the problem, because this family doesn't have a maid service.. or maybe she's angry they were throwing a party and she wasn't invited...
The next guest is of a much friendlier nature. Kristina Reppe is probably the least likely of all Sunset Valley inhabitants to actually get angry about something. Even as a teenager, she's just super nice and easy going.
Then comes grandpa Egil. An ambitious snob and retired CEO of the TelComNor foundation that was founded by his father again in the early 1940s. Hs father worked really hard back in the day to get the company going, and it was his business ideas that slowly brought the Kråkesen family from rags to riches. Though Egil was once set to take over the reigns of the company, his father wanted to teach his son the value of hard work, just like he had to, and as such he didn't get a free ride to the top just because he was the son of the companys founder.. When Egil finally took over leadership of the company in 2008, after his father passed away, he began work to make the company an international success, furthering the wealth of the family, of course, greatly helped by his wifes success as an author and later career as a professional athlete, that is.
And here is his wife, Frida Kråkesen, as the fourth guest, along with her grandchild Ingrid, and recent birthday child Robert Bråge. Frida is nowhere near as snobby as her husband or youngest daughter Helene, or her grandchild Ingrid.. Bjørn-Yngve is also seen just having arrived home from the boy scouts. He stands there for a while, watching the influx of people, before he decides to do his homework on the front porch.. He's not absent minded like his mom and grandma, but still.. it looks like he doesn't quite understand that all these guests are there because of him.
Then comes his cousin and Ingrids younger brother Morten, and he seems to have some reason to not be satisfied with grandma, and honestly, I don't know why... I would probably need to have either household as actives to begin to figure out what this is about...
Lise Veronica follows next, and this time she has prepared a meal. It's just a salad, but it's not that long ago since she was just a 12 year old too, so this is fine. Maybe she is trying to improve her own behaviour, or maybe she brought it just to satisfy her own hunger, just in case no one else brought food for the party... :P
I wasn't sure if George would show up, since he completely ditched Roberts party, but here he is now. He probably just forgot about time on Roberts birthday, because he was at the library reading. :P
And then last (for now), comes grandma Eirin alone, because grandpa Ingmar found it more important to be playing bass in the park.. and Bjørn-Yngve figures out his next move, which is to do homework. :P
People gather inside talking, and this might be another reason why the maid is angry with Helene. She seems to have a liking for her husband Knut, and is not shy of letting him know. Knut is wise and makes no advances and nothing more happens between them for the remainder of the party, except everyday conversations.
Grandma Frida is the first one to start the party by dancing on her own in the dining room and a later thought bubble from her revealed that she has been enjoying a few drops of that juice before showing up at her grandchilds birthday party.. no wonder she's in such a good mood, but really grandma, come on! :P
Guess I should have seen this coming... Lise Veronicas friendly demeanor didn't last that long, and she's already insulting the host...
..but one that she would never insult, I hope, is her girlfriend Kristina. Realizing that it won't be to fruitful to continue talking to Helene for a while, she quickly moves over to hand her flowers. Grandfather Egil stands to the left and watches the seance..
He nods and smiles at the girls, but inside he's a little torn... "One girl giving flowers to another girl as a romantic gesture? My oh my... things weren't like that in my youth...."
Now, Egil might have a conservative way of viewing the world, but he's not dumb.. Back in the day in his youth, when he was their age in the latter half of the 1960s, a time when the fight for equal rights for homosexuals was still in it's early stage and it was still risky to be publicly open as a gay person, much more so than it is today... and being a teenager looking to find your place in the world certainly wouldn't make it easier... Egil never really had that struggle though, as he has always been most interested in the opposite sex, but he was still shaped by the times, the pressure among his peers to fit in, and even more so the views of his own parents. In particular those of his father that would have a tendency to lean towards a rather strict upbringing for his own children...
..but that was long ago, and it was far away and Egil doesn't want to be that man, so he does his best, though a little clumsily, to engage in friendly chatter with the girls. Kristina immediately gives the old man the benefit of the doubt. Lise Veronica isn't as accepting and thinks he's being an awkward old fool as she gives him a sly look...
Ah.. but then finally Bjørn-Yngve finished his homework and realized it's his birthday before putting on his finest wear! Mom probably picked that one out, and it doesn't look like the kind of suit to wear while playing outside... but it will sure impress everyone when they see what a classy young gentleman her son is.. right?
Make a wish.
Hooray for Bjørn-Yngve, aging up with perfect grades!
Oh.. oh..
"Well look at you!" Ingrid is amazed of her 'new' cousin. :P
Bjørn-Ynge inherits the charismatic trait from his father (Knut) and grandmother (Eirin).
Then it's time for.. cake and salad, and the grandparents, Egil, Frida and Eirn mentally gang up on Bjørn-Yngves father Knut.. Especially Frida (in the middle) is very displeased and loudly lets everyone know... he's just so inappropriate. Not dressing up propertly, and pointing and laughing at his own son.. "You're such a disgrace of a father!"
Knut couldn't care less though, as he leaves the party behind to go upstairs to get banned from yet another internet forum...
The guests chaotically gather around the table eating their food of choice in their own way, when Lise Veronica has something to say.. "Something smells in here.. it smells like trash.."
Frida jumped a little at the mention of the word 'smell'.. "Can they smell I've been drinking? Oh.. I hope not. Of course they can't.. it's probably the smelly plate over there... I have to say something about it, so that they won't think it's me.."
Frida: Oh, yeah, hehe.. it's probably.. hehe, it's probably those dirty dishes over there...
Helene: Oh, sorry about that! I'll take care of it right away!
"How embarrassing.. I can't have a party with smelly dishes all over the place.. what will people think? I should have paid more attention.. I hope this won't hurt my social standing..."
<
Bjørn-Yngve is perhaps the best behaved person at the party. He really doesn't make much of himself, just calmly sitting there observing everyone and eating his cake.. Frida is booing at Ingmar for having the wrong attire. Ingmar often comes of as inappropriate sometimes to the point of being rude, though there usually isn't much thought behind any of it.. and that is the problem. Ingmar is the most absent minded of anyone here. Always lost in his own thoughts, he's usually not present anywhere, even if he is. :P
The rest of the party continues with more eating, dancing and booing at each other. Lise Veronica is showing off some of her moves in the front here. Eirin asks Egil how things are at the office. Egil has retired from his postion as a CEO, but he is still on the board of directors and still attends weekly meetings. The company is his life, and he just couldn't leave it completely...
The uninvited town maid Valborg has really enjoyed her stay, and thinks its time to head home. Ingmar is probably thinking the same... all these parties with all these people he has to attend all the time, when he would be much happier just spending time at home, all alone...
Well, grandpa Ingmar finds an excuse to leave the party behind for a while, as he comes to think about the little man upstairs. The youngest member of the family Anton just woke up from having slept through most of the day, so grandpa is on the spot to let him out so he can go play with his toy box.
Downstairs Kristina has gone to slow dance with Robert. Lise Veronica either hasn't noticed, or doesn't care, because she's still happily dancing along by herself in the dining room. :P
Looks like the party is approaching it's end, as Bjørn-Yngve decides to go to bed and some of the kids downstairs are leaving. Well, good night, I hope you enjoyed your birthday.
Ingrid goes to play some video games with grandpa on the couch, before he calls it a night and goes home too.
Finally with most of the guests out of the house, Helene loosens up a little and finds some time to dance as well. Eirin teases her about it.. "Sensational news! Helene danced at her own party! Read all about it in todays edition of the Sunset Valley Gazette!" (Eirins daughter Ranveig works as a journalist, so a quick phone call after she gets home might actually result in this happening... :P)
The elders were the ones that held out the longest at this party, as Frida, Eirin and Ingmar were the last ones to leave. Helene can sleep well and need not to worry about any rumours or loss of social standing as everyone really enjoyed this party and will only have positive things to say about it.
Chapter 19.4 – Sunset Valley April 2023: Part I – The Motor-Karlsen family.
It's back to the beachfront houses again, because just across the street from Motor-Notesen familys home lives the Motor-Karlsen family.. with another family member whose birthday is coming up soon. However, I will follow them for a day first, before doing the birthday celebration, so as to not have to many of them back to back. :P
The one to age up soon is this young fellow, Walter Motor-Karlsen. A relatively unwritten page so far, as he has mostly just made an appearance here and there because he had to for various family photos.. :P And of course, he's not sleeping, but wide awake..
These are his parents, Sofie and Eivind Motor-Karlsen. His mother Sofie appears to have developed an uncanny ability to sleep with not just one, but both of her eyes wide open... on high alert, in case her toddler should need something perhaps? Or something else should happen? Or maybe she's in a state of sleep paralysis... Hmm, interesting...
..waiting for the sandman, but the sandman never came...
She looks a lot more relaxed whenever she is hugged by her husband (or vice versa), but as soon as he turns away, her eyes are wide open again...
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Her husband, Eivind, aspires to be an astronaut, and as such he has chosen a career with the military (which means he is the first one that has to wake up because his job starts early). He really hopes to achieve his goal of viewing the Simtopian Planet from space.. They're not just sending anyone out there, one has to pass rigorous health examinations, and of course, be in perfect physical (and mental) condition. He's not that far away from his goal, as he's already flying high as a jet fighter pilot on level 9 of his career. Well, he certainly has his physical condition under control, so that shouldn't pose a problem..
Starting the day with a healthy salad. Must not gain to much weight... Now, Eivind is the brother of both Monica and Ranveig (and the son of Eirin), and as such he has also inherited the same, err, mental affliction, but since he made it so far in his military career, it can't be that bad for him..
On his way to work, he exited through the balcony door, because they had just finished expanding the house with another new bedroom for Walter, which meant moving around a few things.. and somehow the builders had forgotten to put the front porch stairs back in place... they realized their mistake a little later, and came back to fix it just before Kleopatra, the teenage daughter of the house, had to go to school...
Kleopatra can often be a little grumpy, if not downright hot-headed, but it looks like she wakes up with a good mood today... Good morning.
Well, it was a good morning.. until she went upstairs to have breakfast and heard the sound of her younger brother crying..
In the meantime, Sofie had woken up to the same sound, but she wasn't grumpy about it, like I expected her to.. Instead her sons crying made her think of band aids, but no one had suffered any injury here.. He was just hungry, so it was good...
Sofie thought about the birthday gift she wanted to buy for Walter, as she went into the kitchen to prepare breakfast for herself..
Cooking is one of Sofies favorite things, something she had to teach herself early, when she lived at home with her dad and older brother Jonathan... With her mom absent from the household, she sort of took on the role as the mother of the house, and decided to do the cooking after she had enough of her fathers burnt toast.... Sofie didn't really know what a mom was until she became one herself... but that's all in the rear view mirror..
Sofie started her career as a teenager working in the vegetable section at the local grocery store (so many interesting ingredients..), before she got a job right across the street at the Corsican Bistro once she became a young adult. Sofie takes great pride in her cooking skills, and all of the recipes that she has memorized.. She is definately a walking library of culinarity.. :P
Kleopatra uses the front porch staircase to go to school... An expanded section of the hallway and Walters new bedroom is behind her, above the entrance to their new garage that they also built in the basement of the house.
Translation of pop-up: "We have so much in common. I would like to get to know you better."
Someone is throwing curled paper balls torn from their notebook at Kleopatra from the back of the classroom making a romantic advance on Kleopatra when she is in school. I think his name is Otto Hillestad, son of Haldis Hillestad. She is a single mom living with her son in the lot called The Cormorant at 180 Wright Way. I don't know much about this family, I have only seen them around town occasionally. If Otto is serious and not just being a teenage dir.. uhmm... goofball, maybe we'll learn more about them eventually. :P (..and perhaps they'll hang out and listen to medieval torture instrument music Iron Maiden, maybe..)
With Eivind and Kleopatra out of the house, Sofie and Walter would spend some time on the couch in their sleepwear playing video games and watching the cooking channel...
..until Walter gets tired and has to sleep.
Then Sofie goes back to playing computer games, with the cooking channel still on in the background. :P
Eivind gets home from work and wants to upgrade the computer in their bedroom, but it's broken so he has to repair it first.. His attempt of doing so is unsuccessful, and when it zaps him, he decides to call a professional to do the job instead...
Kleopatra returns home from school, and Sofie wants to go fishing to catch some fresh ingredients for her cooking.. She waits for the weather to clear up, but it doesn't seem to want to, as it pretty much just rained all day..
Kleopatra is inspired by her mom and wants to learn the cooking skill, so she goes to make the most advanced thing she knows.. hot dogs.
"Hmmm... how long should these be in here?"
Still haven't gotten her first skill point, she tries to step it up a notch by making tofu hot dogs this time..
Sofie notices her daughters cooking, but doesn't say much about it. "It's better she experiments in the kitchen, instead of being out doing mischief... I don't want to see my daughter turn into another case of wasted youth... but really, do we need all these hot dogs?"
Kleopatra isn't done cooking, however, as she moves on to make macaroni and cheese. :P Probably the most simple dish anyone can make, but atleast it serves a purpose and she obtains the skill point that she wanted.
Kristina, Kleopatras classmate and friend, has also been out improving her skills, as she just reached level 4 in writing...
Kristinas older sister Inge better watch her back now, Kristina is gaining on her!
Kleopatra eats a bowl of her macaroni and cheese while spending some time watching the cooking channel, when she thinks of another skill she wants to learn.. and she knows just the place to do it..
Kleopatra: I'm heading out mom! I'll go bowling with uh.. Margrethe and some other friends.
Sofie: Ok, have fun and don't be out to late.. I suppose you've already done your homework?
Kleopatra: Yes, mom.. todays homework was really easy, I finished it at school already....
Liar liar! Kleopatra doesn't go bowling at all...and she hasn't as much as looked at her homework.. instead she goes to the rebel hangout, for one specific reason..
She has heard that if she goes to the Youngmob cafeteria on the first floor and talk to the man behind the counter, she can buy a starter street art kit.. and if she buys an energy drink with it, she'll even get a special discount.
It's illegal in the Kingdom of Simbria to sell energy drinks to anyone below the age of 16, but the cafeteria employee didn't excactly ask her age, and he probably didn't care about breaking the rules either... and neither does Kleopatra, as long as mom and dad doesn't find out.. :P
Energized by the energy drink, she goes into the cafeteria bathroom to practice another skill.. The police, if they found out, would usually frown upon this kind of activity, however, the rebel hangout is governed by kids and young adults with a more... anarchistic way of thinking... and so they allow their guests to practice and pretty much do what they want, as long as they are not actively actually destroying something..
Wish granted. And no police in sight...
It's not a very advanced piece, she could do with a little more practice, but Kleopatra is still happy to have left her mark. - in Chuck Berry red. Maybe with some practice she'll be able to use colours she has never even seen before...
And now, energized by her recent work of art, she ran up to the second floor of the building where she met someone I wasn't expecting her to find there...
Her aunt Helene... I'm not sure how hanging out at the rebel hangout is gonna help with her social standing.. I don't think her desired social circle will approve...
..or maybe that's not so important when there's an opportunity to brag about her husbands red sports vehicle.. their very own paradise by the dashboard light...
That is of course the stupidest thing Kleopatra has ever heard, and just as quickly as she made a new friend in her aunt, she lost one again...
..but she was still energized by the drink, and kept on doing what she came there for, to dance throughout the night, as she watched Lisa Bunch set a strange example of flirting with elderly..
She kept dancing until suddenly the energy ran out, and she decided to head home, with almost perfect timing, only a short moment after the curfew came into effect..
..where she could creep in the shadows and sneak into bed without anyone noticing...
...as mommy and daddy was sleeping in the moonlight. Good night.
'Chain Reaction' - Edwin Dolinski (Sim City 4 soundtrack).
Alright, brace yourself for another birthday party, because this time it's Walters turn.. After this ine though, there won't be anyone transitioning to the next age group for a good while. :P
Sim profile: Full name: Walter Motor-Karlsen Date of birth: April 14th , 2017. Personality traits: Easily impressed, insane. Family tree:
--
Now before we can really start.. I like that the first thing I see is Kleopatra dreaming about evading the police.
Eivind is the first to wake up, because of his sleeping schedual that is adjusted to his work hours. He is happy and excited to pick up his son and let him out of the crib.."Happy birthday, Walter! Today is gonna be a special day for you..."
Both Eivind and Sofie have the day off today, perfect for preparing to celebrate Walters birthday. Walter walks into the bathroom to play with the toilet... and Eivind decides to spend the quiet early morning moment upgrading the computer, to prevent it from breaking again... Sofie has some interesting dreams in the back there.. "No, no fighting... please, don't fight..."
Sofie was only a toddler when she overheard her parents fighting from the room next door, the day before their divorce.. The situation had built up steadily for a while, with their fighting constantly getting louder and louder until it exploded that one day and the fists came out..
Her older brother Jonathan wasn't at home when it happened. Since he was a child and had the option to move around a lot more freely than Sofie, he rarely was, and with good reason.. Home wasn't a particularly good place to be then for a while..
Now, I didn't just sit there and watch this back in the day. I tried to fix their parents relationship, but it just couldn't be done. Then just like now, I played rotationally, and when I returned to their household, it had gotten so bad, even the positive, friendly interactions that I tried, resulted in them disliking each other even more... There was really only one way this could end...
And it all started when Asgeir, their father, was invited over to his neighbours house for a barbecue.. Egil had something to tell him, something the entire town knew, except Asgeir.. that Lucie was having an affair at work, with Beau Andrews.. and Beau was still married to Victoria! Another marriage that went south shortly thereafter...
When Sofie wakes up, she's not feeling to well and she wants to spend some time on her own. She goes to pick up Walter from the bathroom and place him on the bedroom floor alongside his dad, still working to upgrade the computer, before she tells him she'll head out to Bjerkedammen (Pinochle Pond) to go fishing for a while..
Over the years, the town council have upgraded several of the lots around town. The cabin in the background was built in the early 1990s, and it features beds, a small bathroom and a dining area, as well as a barbecue grill and a park bench outside. And it's free to use for all Sunset Valley residents, all year round.
Sofie has another idea with going fishing. She wants to catch a fish using live bait, and then prepare a meal later using that fish.. but first, she has to catch the bait... there is a wild salad plant growing on the edge of the lot, where she can go to harvest salad to use as bait until then..
She stands there trying her luck all the way until sunrise, until finally she gets her bait, a gold fish. Sofie doesn't know it, but she reminds me a lot of her mom after she got kicked out of the house following the divorce, because this is excactly what Lucie used to do back then, to go fishing. Lucie never visited the house afterwards and her father never spoke any of her, so Sofie never really got to know her mom until she became a young adult and moved out on her own.
While Sofie is up there fishing and catches another fish, a kissing gouramis, using the gold fish as bait Kleopatra wakes up and she looks really sad too. This looks like a bad morning for the ladies of the household..
I didn't catch the moment when Sofie caught the kissing gouramis, since I watched Kleopatra get out of bed to eat breakfast, but I can only assume that Sofie was really happy, as it fulfilled her wish of doing so.
Sadness returned to her face though, as she packed up her fishing rod and decided to head back home..
Kleopatra was already on the school bus by the time she walked in the door. This didn't look like a good day at all for Sofie..
Maybe some housework would distract her from bad thoughts (She is used to that..)
It was excursion day for the kids at school, as they were heading up to the mausoleum at the Pleasent Rest graveyard, and look who sat down next to Kleopatra.. I can't tell if she enjoys this or not, though, but someone definately finds her interesting...
Running towards the mauseloum. Running ahead of her is her cousin Bjørn-Yngve that had his birthday party last month.
Back home Sofie was watching the romance channel with Walter, when he told her in his own way he was getting tired and wanted to go to bed..
He needs the rest so he can be awake for his birthday party later. Putting him to sleep changes the look on Sofies face and she finally smiles a little..
..but it doesn't take long before she's back to muttering and feeling grumpy again as Eivind walks over because he wants to give her a hug. It's spring, things are floating in the air, and love day is soon coming up...
Sofie rewards him with a small kiss on the mouth, before they have a friendly conversation about the former national league football player Hillmund Norzing that went on an expedition to climb the Simalayan mountains where he unfortunately came across a yeti (allegedly) on the way down and uh.. well... after which Sofie likens it to an almost fictional story before she continues to flirt with Eivind.
The mood is all fine and good until Eivinds demons 'finally' succeeds in overcoming his willpower to get the better of him, and he delivers an inappropriate critisicm of their son..
..which unfortunately doesn't end well, and they go each their seperate ways and doesn't really talk to each other for a while. Apart from when they have to cooperate to invite guests and decorate for the upcoming birthday, neither of which seem to heighten Sofies mood much..
Being grumpy or sometimes in a bad mood is something Sofie has inherited from her father. So it happens from time to time that she's not excactly feelling like she's on top of the world, but this is the first time I've seen her consistently look this sad. Even when she goes to the kitchen to prepare a meal from the kissing gouramis she caught earlier, something that she wishes to do.
..but we'll get through this day, even if it feels like a bit of a drag. Atleast cooking is still enjoyable. I'm also sure you can square it out with your husband later, I mean, you've already been married for longer than your parents were...
See, Sofie, that looks nice! A perfectly well cooked meal of Dim Sum with a fresh fish from this morning as a main ingredient!
Sofie: Oh.. atchoo...!
"Of course I just had to sneeze all over it.. guess I won't be serving this one to the guests, I don't want to be responsible for someone dying from eating my food... is this the day where everything is supposed to go wrong? I guess so.... sometimes I wish I could just trade in this lemon of a life and get my money back..."
Whoa there, Sofie.. ! You were just unlucky.. it was probably just some pollen in the air that you made you sneeze.. whatever has happened, in the near or distant past, isn't your fault anyway, there wasn't really anything you could've done about it, so don't be so hard on yourself, ok...? Phew, that was a bit heavy, but we have to move on to more cheerful matters, as your sons birthday party is about to begin soon, and the guests are already on their.. uh..
..well, ladies and gentlemen, there you have it. May I introduce to you Sofies mom that just decided to get married for the second time on her grandsons birthday... the timing couldn't have been better..
Some more guests that are on their way to arrive, from back left to front right (relation to birthday child in paranthesis): Ranveig Motorsen (aunt), Mohamed Khaled (friend of the family), Helene Kråke-Motorsen (aunt), Asgeir Karlsen (grandfather mothers side), Otto Hillestad (he's a stranger to Walter and wasn't invited, but he has Kleopatra as his love interest...), Monica Motor-Notesen (aunt) and Jonathan Kråke-Karlsen (uncle).
Ivar, Monicas husband (in the back talking to Sofie), and the grandparents on the fathers side, Eirin (in the back in the blue swimsuit) and Ingmar (not on this picture), was also invited. Eivind has picked up some rumours about what Kleopatra did just yesterday at the rebel hangout.. He promises not to tell Sofie that she lied to her about bowling, but at the same time he warns her not to get in any trouble with the police...
Especially since Eivind works in the military, he doesn't want a daughter already getting in trouble with the law... "If I catch you again lying to your mom or me and vandalizing public property, I'll have you grounded with no telephone.. you gotta follow my rules when you're in my home... is that understood?"
These grandmothers, I don't know what's up with them.. Grandma Eirin does something I think is wildly inappropriate, handing over flowers to Jonathan. The worst part is, he accepts them like a fool and flirts back...
Well, it could be that grandma Eirin was just being clever, and used her flirting techniques as a way to get to interrogate Jonathan.. She was a retired top level police officer where she worked as a DNA profiler in the forensic specialist branch (her lifetime wish), and was rehired to lead the investigation of a human trafficking case from october last year. Since then they just kept her at the office since they found her so valuable with all her experience.. Well, she certainly has her methods.. they may be a little unethical, but as long as they work...
Then it's time for the main event, and Eivind has gone to wake up Walter and bring him upstairs. This is where the party really begins...
Blow out the candles and make a wish! And feel free to ignore your sister in the background there, she's being stupid... :P
It's time for the big moment! Soon it will happen...
..oh oh... and look at grandma.. It doesn't look like she's there to celebrate her grandson.. she just got married, and now she's there giving flowers to her son-in-law! What is going on with the grandmothers in this town... please...
Not very popular with anyone, and grandpa came around the corner just in time to watch her get rejected, too.. somehow I guess he's not to surprised his ex-wife would do something like that... and now you see why she's an ex-wife...
Also, Walter didn't really feel comfortable in the clothes he ended up aging up in, so he went downstairs to his room to find the dresser and change his outfit into something more comfortable, before he went on to eat cake.
The cake eating sequence always ends up being a bit of a mess, but everyone ends up getting a piece eventually, and Sofie is finally enjoying herself, too. Here she is in a conversation with Ivar about the fishing trip she had this morning.
Walter is probably the smartest of them all, avoiding all the mess around the dining table by immediately going for the sofa.
Not all the guests, such as grandma Eirin or his uncle Jonathan, paid as much attention to Walter aging up as he thinks they should have, so he finds himself walking the round to inform them it's his birthday, so they can congratulate him too.
Sofie is happy her brother Jonathan came to the party, and wants to talk to him, but... he walks away and Sofie is left alone..
"Why does everyone always leave me...?" she thinks, before bitterness takes hold for a while and she mutters a small curse at the world...
..but he's her brother, so why give up so easily? She gives it another shot and follows him inside where they have a friendly conversation about movies and rediscover that they share the good trait... and he tells her to do some cleaning.. just like the old days...
They inherited the good trait from their mom, Lucie, and yes, she is actually a good person.. but she's also very easily impressed and, well, easily swept off her feet by any sweet talking man with noble or sometimes less noble intentions.. Back in the day she had already made quite a lot of money on her medical career, and if you know Beau Andrews, you'll know that his ambition in life is to marry rich like the filthy, lazy gold digger that he is...
One of Walters uncles Ivar is providing some entertainment by playing a song called 'Mechanix', a song he claims he wrote when was working part time at a gas station and garage fixing cars back in the day (in spite of having zero handiness skill when he married Monica...). It was one of the hits, as he called it, from his old band (that he got kicked out of....) I guess he's gotten over the worst of the bitterness of his old band mates could just do something like that to him...
Inside grandma Lucie had joined Walter on the couch to play video games, while his aunt Helene had sat down next to them to enjoy a meal. While playing, Lucie decided to share the good news that she had just gotten married earlier on the same day...
Sofie heard what she said from the dining area and was not very impressed...
Kleopatra walks inside from the balcony where Ivar is still playing his old songs, to finally give her gift to Walter.
"Happy birthday, brother!"
Kleopatra had bought him a football to play with outside, and by football, I of course mean the type of ball used in the game called just that – football. A game where you use your foot to kick a ball in the direction of the opposing teams goal, and where it is illegal to pick up said ball with your hands, because that's not football...
Ivar had finally stopped playing outside, the party was coming to an end and people were starting to find their way home. Bedtime was soon here for Walter as well, so he walked out on the balcony to find grandpa and ask him for a good night story.
Mom, dad and Kleopatra was already asleep as Walter walked past the gift from his mom in the hallway to show grandpa the way to his new room. Grandpa was happy and had all intentions to read for Walter, but then the bell tolled and he decided to go home instead..
He went back upstairs to ask his aunt Monica instead, but she was just about the leave, too. He considered for a second to ask grandma Lucie as she was now the last guest remaining, but figured it wasn't worth it. He was already much to tired after this day, and went straigth to bed..
Shortly thereafter grandma went home to, without even finishing the hot dog she had just started eating, and leaving all the plates for the parents to clean up by tomorrow morning.. and that marked the end of this party...
Chapter 19.5 – Sunset Valley May 2023 – Family and friends (and old enemies)
The first thing I notice when I return to the Motor-Karlsen family is a pair of paparazzis standing on their porch arguing..
"This is my turf, you go get your photos elsewhere!"
Well, excuse me ladies...
The family is having their dreams. Walter (now age 6) looks up to his father and wants a job in the military, but that could change many times over before he finally grows up.
Marriage and being faithful to your partner is important for Sofie.. her dreams this night is much more pleasant than the dreams she had before Walters birthday.. will she wake up in a good mood this morning, or will she still be sad and grumpy?
Eivind dreams about planes.. or anything that's high up in the sky, where his job is. Eivind still remembers the moment when he was very young and a meteor crashed in their backyard... And since then he's been unable to let go of the thought of learning about space, and finally becoming an astronaut... His mother Eirin still has that meteor on their back balcony, and she sometimes walks out there to have conversations with it.. maybe there's alien life on it?
Picture originally posted in Chapter 17.3 – Sunset Valley – December 2022 part III: Painting on the wall..
Kleopatra dreams of her school trip to the mausoleum. Otto kept flirting with her in the mausoleum, so maybe love is in the air? ..but then she saw a ghost, and that was much more fun, so maybe not... does a flower have an odd or even number of petals? :P
Eivind is, as usual, the first one to get up and eat breakfast among the smelly leftovers from yestermonths birthday party...
..before he goes from computer to computer to post inappropriate things on internet forums.. He has gone to the computer in their bedroom when Sofie wakes up, and yep, this morning she's in a good mood. She's still thinking about fishing trips, and making the bed... Sofie has gotten more of a perfectionist with age, another thing she has inherited from her dad, so she can't leave the bed unfinished..
That is what she ends up doing though, as her husband, as soon as she wakes up, starts to feel romantic and ditches the pointless forum trolling for something much more worthwhile. He goes in for a romantic hug and a kiss, and Sofies response is to talk about her fear of heartbreak... She doesn't say it outright, but she would be absolutely devastated if Eivind should decide to leave her..
Kleopatra wakes up next and a little grumpily, she decides to do the homework she didn't have the time to do yesterday.. Eivind walks upstairs to talk to her about Walters birthday party being an awesome event, to which Kleopatra has a snarky remark about the leftovers that nobody seems interested in cleaning up...
"Well, I don't have time for that, I gotta go to work..."
It's not until Walter wakes up to get ready for his first day of school someone takes responsibility to clean up the dishes... Well, this should make mom and dad happy, shouldn't it?
After he has hopped on the schoolbus, Sofie saves and then quits her computer game downstairs to do some much needed laundry. Sofie has from an early age decided that when she got married, she would do whatever it takes to make sure the marriage stays and doesn't fall apart. That has always been very important to her.. in good days as well as during the bad ones... why else would one make that promise?
Speaking of promises and marriages.. There is one important person Sofie wants to talk to, but didn't find the time to during the birthday party – her father. So she hops into her fast green car to drive the short, but long, drive up to her old childhood home...
Sofie has to stop on the sidewalk for a while.. The house looks excactly like it did when she moved out, the way it always has for as far back as she can remember. They have still kept the sickly green colour on the walls, inside and out... She finds it hard to imagine that this house was once nothing but a small shack, though she has seen old photos of it... of the way it looked when her mom and dad first moved here as newlyweds in the late 1970s... A marriage that was 11 months away from making it to its tin anniversary..
Sofie walks her way to the front door to ring the doorbell, before she takes a step back waiting for someone to open.. Her father always likes to take his time, so she is left waiting for a while. She can hear the sound of his flip flops moving lazily across the floor, before he finally opens the door. She mutters a few words before he walks up to give her a formal greeting and invite her inside.
Sofie initiates the conversation by complaining about how hard it is to do dishes and to get them clean enough, and they both rediscover that they share the grumpy and the perfectionist trait.. This is largely where Sofies grumpiness comes from.
There are always four sides to every story, and Asgeir, though he was always faithful, wasn't always the easiest man to share a roof with. Due to his grumpy mood, he often had his off days where almost everything seemed wrong, and of course, the next thing he does is to launch into an argument with Sofie about a piece of classical music.. I believe classical music to be his favorite music. It has to be, because it's pretty much always playing in this house. :P
Sofie however, didn't come there to argue and she doesn't really have to strong feelings neither for nor against classical music, so she pretends to agree with whatever he said, and they continue a conversation about music in general that is much more relaxed.
Asgeirs life has revolved around books and painting, so Sofie picks her conversational topics with care. It's important for Sofie to stay on good terms with her dad, and after she has fulfilled her wish of talking to him, she wants to hand him a gift.
Luckily, she already has a book in her inventory to give him, and even though the book turned out to be a childrens book, he was still happy about the gift. :P
Sofie then wants to brighten her fathers day by telling him a true sunshine story, but he's not up for it and it just bores him..
"Why is dad so hard to please? I just want us all to hang out and stay together.. like a family..." Sofie thinks to her self, disheartened once more, as she walks over to the juice station for a drink and to watch the romance channel.. At least the people on the tv live a happy, perfect life...
While she was having a few drinks, her father had followed the sound of someone playing guitar and walked into one of the rooms at the end of the hallway. The room that he walked into used to serve as his office, where he wrote all his books and painted most of his paintings.
Sofie decides to follow the sound of the guitar too, after getting a little buzzed from the juice. And to address the teddy bear in the room, I have no idea what it's doing there. It could be a left over from Jonathan and Sofies childhood, or maybe something they own in case their grandchildren wanted to come over and play. :P
The sound of the guitar comes from Sofies mom, Lucie. They are divorced, but they still live in the same house that they have more or less built together. Before Lucie could move back in, Asgeir had built a seperate apartment for her with her own entrance. They had agreed in the beginining that her apartment would be off limits to him, since they didn't still didn't want to see each other.. or couldn't see each other, without a literal fight erupting.. they have since reconciled and every room of the house is now open to both of them. They decided to live like this, not for themselves, but for the sake of their grandchildren, so that they could come over and visit and have both grandma and grandpa present at the same time..
Lucie notices she's got a pair of onlookers and tucks the guitar away, to engage in a group conversation. It's not to often mom, dad and daughter are all in the same room. The conversation is good for a while, but Asgeir has to ruin the mood by launching into an argument about politics with Lucie.. He has always been a difficult man, but his tendency to argue tripled after he learnt she was cheating on him, and thought it has cooled down considerably, the hurt is still there..
Lucie scowls and immediately clenches her fists in response with a face of someone that could probably kill a man... Sofie looks at her father "Was that really necessary?"
Asgeir realizes he's made a fool of himself, and decides to leave the room with Lucie hurling an insult to go at him... This wasn't how Sofie wanted the visit to turn out, though it was kind of what she had expected...
"See you later, mom..." Sofie says as she leaves the room thinking her parents could need some time seperate to cool off again..
Sofie decides to kill some time having a few more drinks by the juice bar again until she gets hungry. That's when she thinks she'll give it another go for them to do something together as a family, and wants to take them out dining..
She decides to take them out to the Corsican Bistro, because she knows the food there is excellent. She wrote the menu herself. Sofie has already decided to go for a quick burger, and Lucie isn't all that hungry she quickly picks out a simple sandwich, but Asgeir...? He takes his time.. and they wait.. and they wait.. before he finally shows up with a simple hot dog and mashed potato meal..
When they decide on their seating, Lucie immediately goes for the table with three chairs, but Asgeir doesn't follow her there and neither does Sofie, as she sits down with her father. She asks him why he took so long to decide and still ended up with a meal from the kids menu... "You should've tried our chicken legs instead, they're ace."
Lucie is saddened that they didn't want to sit at her table and she had to eat alone.. but at least Asgeir and Sofie had a nice meal together, before Sofie had to run back inside the restaurant to start her evening shift...
Like mother, like daughter.. Kleopatra is home from school and has sat down to watch the cooking channel on tv.. She also wants to make friends with her aunt Helene after the birthday party, so she decides to give her a call to discuss the latest celebrity gossip and the importance of smoke detectors..
"You have to be careful when cooking, so you won't accidentally set fire to your kitchen" Helene says, hoping that the teenager will avoid the same mistake Helenes own absent minded mom once did...
Walter, when he came come home from school, went directly to his sisters bedroom to start a gigantic painting.. The easel there was Kleopatras birthday gift when she became a teenager. A bit of failed gift, because Kleopatra has never shown any interest in painting...
Kleopatra has, since Walters birthday party, gotten the idea that she wants to make as many friends as possible, so before she sits down at the kitchen table to do her homework, she gives a call to Robert whom she is almost friends with, to invite him over to hang out. She is very excited that he agreed to come over.
Kleopatra puts away her homework as he walks up the stairs and welcomes him to the house, and Robert is happy to be invited. Then through the window, I see a familiar shape standing on the grass below the Art Associations building...
It's Lise Veronica just standing there. Maybe she just watched the flowers, maybe she is contemplating picking them and giving them to Kristina as a sign of affection.. or maybe she's just being weird, I don't know.. :P
Kleopatra and Robert quickly moves to the sofa in the living room area where they discuss summer and vacation plans among other things. Eivind eventually comes home from work to join them, and both Robert and Kleopatra is a bit flabbergasted when he once again threatens Kleopatra with being grounded if she doesn't behave, even though she hasn't really had the time to do any mischief since before the birthday party.. Robert comments that his mother Ranveig isn't as strict, and that she trusts him more to do mostly do what he wants, and that maybe Eivind should be the same way. Kleopatra agrees and this fulfills her wish of becoming friends with Robert.
Sofie is finished with her shift at work and receives a message from her boss, Iliana Langerak, on her phone. She has one of those modern type of phones where you can enlarge the screen beyond the size of the phone. Amazing what modern technology can do. Sofie is excited about the message, since Iliana hosts a party and wants Sofie to come. Of course, Sofie replies yes and is just about to go, but quickly changes her mind..
..because Sofie knows that Iliana can be a bit erratic. It seems Sofie is right, because I find a crowd outside Hogans Diner scratching their heads and laughing at Iliana, wondering what she is doing there in her swimsuit...
So instead of going to the party (or going home), Sofie decides to walk a round circling the restaurant where she stops by the back door to gaze at a little rodent. A rat of all things.. Sofie finds the rat cute, but I don't.. There's a rat by the backdoor of your restaurant, Sofie.. if I were you, I would start laying out traps and poison.. because if there are rats outside, there are probably rats inside too! Not cute... :P
Then another rat shows up as Petter Lande was also on a late night stroll around the restaurant..Now the he found Sofie alone without her husband, he's got a confession to make, and promptly invites her home to his place after work for "just a bottle of wine..."
Sofie is offended and wants none of that! That's the stupidest thing she has heard – in a good while! Sofie will do almost anything for love, true and steady love, but she won't do that! No way, not at all! Sofie has already seen what such a thing can lead too and has since long concluded that it's not at all worth it....
..so she leaves the good for nothing 🐸🐸🐸🐸 behind and heads back to her own family, where Robert is still there discussing school with Kleopatra, even though he said he had to be off for work while they were still on the couch.. but hanging out with cousin Kleopatra isn't half bad, and it sure beats going to work...
..but all fun things come to an end, if only temporary, as Kleopatra gets tired and wants to go to bed. She wishes him a good night and says they could hang out together again some other time, before she goes down to her room to find her brother there still painting on her easel..
I smell a future painter here. It looks like Walter is very keen on following in the footsteps of his grandfather, also a well known painter. Walter has been so caught up in painting, he even forget to eat and do his homework... and when Kleopatra tells him to leave the room so she can go to bed, he still has discuss his favorite colours with her.
Kleopatra goes to bed and quickly falls asleep as he leaves the room to go upstairs and finally get himself a meal. The fridge still has plenty of leftovers from his birthday, so finding something good to eat isn't that hard.. and his homework? Well, it can wait....A painter has no need to learn mathematics or rehearse grammar rules... that is, if a painter is what he'll end up becoming..
Good night.
New homes and house expansions...
Now if you remember how last year ended and this year started with Amena looking for a new home for her and George, and buying the empty lot on 180 Redwood Parkway.. I want to go there and take a look at how it has been doing since last time..
Evolution of 180 Redwood Parkway since Amena bought it in january. It's starting to look like something. I'm sure it will be a nice house for Amena and George when it gets finished.
--
For the next update it's back to january to follow Oliver Freddy and Inge for their fourth semester at university...They're seasoned veterans there now.
Lyrics translated to english (taken from the artists web page):
I live, live from day to day
live from day to day
I wait and see
I wait and see
what comes next
I wait and see
what you are planning
I live, live from day to day
I talk, talk and talk
Saying the same things
again and again
repeat and repeat
repeat and repeat
And the wolves howl
as they always have
and always will
and always will
as they always have
and always will
I wait and see
what are you plotting now
wait and see
what are you scheming
I live, live from day to day
I talk, talk and talk
saying the same thing
again and again
chewing and chewing
the same words
While the wolves howl
as they always have
Always will
"Bye bye brother.. see you again in summer...then we'll go fishing together.. you know I didn't really mean it when I said you were weird..."
The journey takes them east, and then north to the small on the shores of Lake Onebega between the Appaloosian mountains to the west and the smaller Nimíipuu mountain range to the east.
Back to old grounds, and Oliver Freddy already wants to go on a date with Inge.. Inge is looking forward to returning to her art studies..
She just has to stop and show off with a wrench for a while.. Climbing the ranks of the social groups have given her a bit of a confidence boost and made her more confident about her inborn handiness skill.
"See what I can do! I'm not a loser!"
Then after a while some of their other room-mates also return, from top left to bottom right: Jonathan Dirk (will he still have a crush on Inge?), Skip Taylor, Daniel Vaughn, Cody Eisenberg and Ayana Yuki.
Jonathan Dirk finds Oliver Freddy to talk about his expectations for the upcoming semester and studying, while Inge repeatedly engages Skip Taylor in the university slogan dance.
Inge goes outside to do something that, atleast up until now, have been pretty uncharacteristic of her, but something that her boyfriend has done several times.. to go dumpster diving. There are some hints of personal growth in her since her first semester at university.. Or atleast changes, because maybe dumpster diving can't excactly be filed under personal growth.. but she is being more courageous and dares to do things she previously didn't, and getting dirty in a dumpster is one of those things.. No more is she the shy and timid freshman that would cry over her own burnt waffles in the morning!
Well, mostly...
Oliver Freddy was inside reading a copy of Inges first published novel, "A miner's heart". A story of a copper mine in the far northern mountains, and a young hard headed miner falling in love with one of the entertainers working at one of the gambling houses downtown...
Then it was time for them to head for the information meeting at the Student Union to pick up the books they would need for this semester..
Their first lecture isn't until tomorrow, so after having picked up their stuff, Inge goes to play on the arcade machines. Oliver Freddy wants to put some scientific data into context, so heads over to the institute of the technology to have a talk with the professors there.
The professors weren't to happy about the data he brought as they weren't relevant for their ongoing research project on the effects of woohoo on the brain (Seriously... that's what the pop-up said..:P) so they only rewarded him 21 simoleons for the effort.
Well, Oliver wasn't in it for the money, so that didn't faze him much, he was much more disappointed about not having the correct data – again... but since he learnt about their research project he got an idea. He already wanted to take Inge out on a date, but now he wanted to take it a step further.. also since he knew there would be a full moon out tonight. He thought he could already hear the wolves howling from the distant mountain tops..
..so he sends a message to his girlfriend, suggesting that they meet up at the coffee shop for some hot drinks, wink wink nudge nudge. :P
So they meet up at the café and Oliver Freddy being blessed with the inappropriate trait that stems from his grandpa doesn't shy away from giving flirtatious comments about getting their hair wet and skinny dipping in the lake.. yep, that's what he said... but it's a little to cold for that this early in the season, maybe, so they launch into the university cheer dance before they continue to talk about just that, the cold and the snow and end it with a passionate kiss.
They head on over to the counter to order their coffee and tea, but it looks like the barista is in a weird mood or could do with some training, because she just walks away from the cash register to stand awkwardly at the other end... so they give up on ordering and Cora Sidwell moves over and wants to dance with Oliver Freddy. Inge is not to keen on that, so she gets inbetween them to introduce herself to this lady in pink clothes and hideous make-up...
After this the barista seems to have gotten the idea to do what she is supposedly paid for and go stand by the cash register.. "..did these guys just want to order something...?"
Oliver Freddy entertains the girls by retelling a funny story he heard from his aunt Monica about a failed fishing experiment she did once in the small pond behind the Landgraab Research Facility in Sunset Valley. Cora laughs a little nervously while gauging Inges reaction.. "Hmm, are they a couple or..? Maybe I shouldn't have interfered..."
With the barista taking her job seriously for a moment they seize the opportunity to buy themselves some lunch, before sitting down and discussing the upcoming semester. Oliver Freddy wants to do an inkblot test on Inge again, as a purely scientific experiment of course, to see if she's got woohoo on her mind too... Not quite, as her associations were more in the line of asking to increase the royalty she gets from her publisher, dumspter diving and cooking breakfast. However, she does a bit of flirting too, before they move on to talk about the snow and cold weather again.. It always takes a while for them to adjust to the lower temperatures of the mountains after having migrated north from Sunset Valley. They discuss the weather for a while, when blam – suddenly the bathroom door behind them slams open and out comes a naked woman..
Its Jennifer Rockefeller of course. Who else? I don't know what to say about this anymore.. she has become more or less a naked running 'gag' of campus life.. it almost isn't funny anymore... :P But I'll give her that, this entrance was probably one of the best ones she ever did. It totally caught me by surprise that's for sure.. Inge and Oliver Freddy are totally unphazed, though.. Everybody must know about her streaking antics by now as nobody bats an eye.. Jennifer Rockefeller running around with nothing on is perfectly normal around here, it's what you should expect...
Though Inge seemed unaffected by the naked running woman, she jumped a little when she received a message on her phone... Unsure if the message would be a positive or a negative one, she went towards the corner to read it in privacy.. She shouted of joy when she saw that it was a party invitation from Jeffrey Dean – the same guy that mocked her and called her a loser during her freshman year.. The more self assured Inge was definately seeing an increased popularity among her peers. Now it wasn't just Oliver Freddy that got the party invitations, she got them too!
She wouldn't go to the party without her boyfriend, of course not. Like he always took her with him to the parties he was invited to, she would of course do the same. So off they went, past the ever nude Jennifer Rockefeller, now dancing next to the cafeteria counter. Oliver Freddy did his best to look away when they had to walk past Jennifer, but Inge thought it was hilarious and was excited about it. "Did you see that!?" she said when they left the cafeteria to get into his car and drive to Jeffreys party.
Inge immediately sat down to work on another sketch for a future painting, while Oliver Freddy did his best to make sure the other party guests (and the host) did their rounds on the juice keg, by far the most popular item at this party...
Inge had gone down into the basement and found the ping pong table where she played a match with Daniel Vaughn. Both her and Oliver Freddy was being sensible and staying away from the juice this early in the semester..
Oliver Freddy had gone out into the garage to see what was there. Looking up at the sky on his way, he got the idea to ask Inge to watch the stars (and the moon..)..
So he walked back inside to look for Inge. He couldn't find her anywhere in the rooms on the first floor, but someone had seen her go downstairs where he found her in the bathroom..
Of course Inge said she would be more than happy to watch the stars with him, so happily he walked back up the stairs to go outside. Unfortunately though, Inge got a little anxious at all the people that had congregated on top of the stairs in the meantime, impatiently tapping their foot and waiting for their turn to go to the juice keg. It reminded her a little to much of her junior high school days when she would sometimes hide in a toilet stall during breaks to avoid getting bullied by some of the older pupils... so all Oliver Freddy got to do was to stand outside waiting in the cold..
When the passage had cleared and she finally made it out there, it was Oliver Freddys turn to use the bathroom.. She apologized to him for being late and said she got anxious again. Oliver Freddy understood, he knew what it was like to get anxious from time to time, though for completely different reasons. Strangely enough, perhaps, he had avoided getting bullied when he was in school, as everyone thought of him as pretty strong and brave. His father is the towns prison warden after, all, but what nobody knew back then was that he carried another secret.. Just like his mother Ranveig, his aunt Monica and eventually his younger cousin Lise Veronica, he would begin to sometimes hear voices..
It started out when he was a child, and they were pretty mild at first, just 'ordinary' commands.. "Look at that flower!".. "Look at that painting!".."Go sit in that chair!", but as he got older they got gradually worse... "Did you hear that painting? It's talking to you!"... "The painting hates you!".. and so on. The voices could sometimes be really nasty and eventually started to use all kinds of foul language... Walking though the hallways to get to class could sometimes be a nightmare with the voices blending in with the chatter from everyone else he was passing on the way... it took a lot of strength to keep a straight face and pretend nothing was happening...
People always said about him that he was brave and determined.... if only they knew.. and it was this bravery, among other things, that piqued Inges interest, how he just waded through the crowds of the hallways like it was, apparently, nothing.. and finally, after watching him from a distance from her seat in the school bus, she finally found the courage to send him a text message when she got home to ask him on a date.. and the rest you, perhaps, already know..
So... with her boyfriend using the bathroom, Inge walked up to a room on the second floor to watch her favorite channel on tv, the cooking channel...
Toilet visits could sometimes be related to setbacks for both of them, but Oliver Freddy hadn't given up on his thought of romance under the moonlight. He had to go for it tonight. He thought as well that it would probably be good for Inge to pull herself away from the tv every once in a while, so he found her in the bedroom upstairs and turned on his charm to the maximum level to woo her before they would go home.. Well, that was his original idea, but seeing how well it worked, why not make an even more daring suggestion...
Inge was taken aback by what he just said, but oh so exciting.. Of course, it made her a little nervous too, and before she could fully commit, she had to get some emotions out of the way.. She had never done this before.. what if someone found out and walked in on them? What would they say? What would they think?
..but she trusted her boyfriend and followed him to another bedroom next door... besides, she thought that everyone downstairs were probably still to preoccupied with the juice keg to walk upstairs and notice.. right..?
Well, it's now or never...
"You ready?"
Laughter, applause and bed noises. :P
Love and magic happened that night as the moon hang shining bright high up in the sky..
"...and you only wanted to hold hands, didn't you...?" / "...why do I keep thinking about garden gnomes....?"
Oh my, looks like they did it with the door open.. someone must have heard that...
Yup, I think this guy that showed up shortly afterwards knows what just happened.
Inspired by the act or whatever it was, the random guy that almost walked in on them walks down the stairs and decides to run around streaking.. while Oliver Freddy and Inge sit down together on a couch just outside the room..
Inge is getting a little anxious again now, and thinks its time they head back home before more people notice.. besides, her first lecture starts early tomorrow morning, and she wants to make sure she gets enough sleep. Oliver Freddy agrees, they want to be good, sensible students.. and it's only the beginning of the semester... they can hopefully do some more wild partying once they have finished their exams before summer.. and what they already did was pretty wild anyway..
So they get into his car and drive back home to their dorm under the beautiful night sky to find their own bed and go to sleep...
Chapter 20.1 – Onébegajávvre (Lake Onebega) - January 2023: part II – It starts with a bang and ends with a fire.
The moon is still hanging bright in starlight outside when the semester really starts, with Oliver Freddy and Inge in bed dreaming sweet dreams...
Inges fist lecture starts early, so she goes for a quick meal in the kitchen before heading out into the early morning january sun. This semester she will be attending a course called "The development of song 201". Inge isn't excactly a songbird, so she hopes that they won't actually have to sing....
Oliver Freddy goes as usual to troll a few forums before he decides to check out the chemistry table he just received though mail order.
If aunt Monica saw him now, she would be so proud! Even more so his mother Ranveig, of course!
He experiments because he wants to discover an elixir, and he did discover one, but then.. he thought he could experiment a little more with and.. boom.. it exploded right there in his hands, but that's how you learn.
"Hmm... maybe a little less strontium powder next time.... Perhaps I should actually read the chapters about chemistry before doing any more experimenting..."
After Inge is finished with her lecture, she decides to build an igloo while her fellow student Samantha Grey keeps eyeing her in a peculiar manner... Inge could feel she was being stared at, it was almost like a certain glow emanated from Samanthas eyes...
At the same time Oliver Freddy had gone to wash of the smell of smoke and soot all the while succesfully breaking the shower in the process. He had no time to repair it or even call someone to do the job before he had to run off out into the winter snow to his first lecture ("The psychology of geology 201"). It was a nice day and the winds were calm, a perfect day for some of the locals to go for a ride in their hot air balloon. You get such a nice view of the lake and the town from up there. Perfect to survey what everyone is up to and where they're going (solar panels not included...).
Inge was done building her igloo when Samantha approached her to complain about all the boring people that just couldn't get a joke.. Inge listened patiently, before they went on to discuss their favorite cartoons and what they had learnt in class today. Inge was happy they didn't actually have to sing. They only learnt about the history and theory of song...
It looks like Inge had a plan with the igloo building, as she afterwards went inside it to study. Nice one! I didn't know they could do that. Samantha wasn't done ranting about boring people and wanted to bring out her megaphone to let everyone hear it loud and clear excactly how inappropriate she thought it was of people to not laugh at her jokes... She was really angry about it and her voice almost sounded like the barks of an untamed wild animal as she delivered her message, though I don't think anyone actually cared to listen... :P
The release of energy made her calm down a little, so she could focus on her art again, as she sat down hiding amidst the shrubs to make another sketch of the mountains that surrounded the area. Oh, what a dream it would be to roam free amidst the mountains, go for a swim in a small lake that she found. To run through the new days mist and to quench ones thirst from the clear fresh water from a tiny stream flowing gently through the landscape.... back to the meaning of... life!
While Inge was inside the igloo reading, a bit of drama had unfolded on the outside as some unsuccessful flirting had been going on between Marlene Huse (in the blue jacket) and this guy to the right (in the grey jacket) whose name I forgot to take note of.. Nonetheless, Inge didn't have time for any drama as she since yesterday had gotten a wish to throw a juice keg party of her own.. So it was time to go home, get some rest and begin the party preperations...
Inviting people to the party was of course necessary. Inge wanted to become even more popular (and prove to people she wasn't a loser) and as such she wanted to create the best party of everyone on campus this semester. She even dared to invite Jeffrey Dean to the party.. what a sucess it would be if only he showed up..
Oliver Freddy was hungry after his lecture, so he ran past a woman making a snow angel in her swimsuit and over to the cafeteria to get something to eat for lunch...
The barista at the cafeteria was on the ball today and he managed to successfully order a bagel. While he was eating he came to talk to a girl sitting on the couch there reading in her book. He learnt that her name was Karoliiná Onébegajávrre and that she was a freshman student in technology before they had a releatively mundane conversation that revolved around eating and food, naturally, I suppose. He didn't ask her about her last name, but he assumed that she had to be from around here, since her last name had a striking resemblance to the name of the place...
Like his girlfriend Oliver Freddy was also tired from having stayed up a little late at the party yesterday so after finishing his meal he leaves the cafeteria to join his girlfriend napping on the bed..
After having a satisfying nap, its time for Inge to prepare for her party.. The first task is to clean up the kitchen and the dining room, because as usual her room mates have left a mess of dirty plates and rotten food all over the place..
After finishing up the last round of decorations, Inge got hungry and prepared a meal of hot dogs to herself (with some extra servings intended for the guests), and when cleaning up her own plates, the dishwasher broke..
So she had to order someone to repair it, as well as clean up all the water that was now running out all over the floor quickly before the guests would arrive..... and while she was already holding the phone in her hand, she thought she might just order a pizza as well, in case the hot dogs wouldn't be good enough for her guests...
To late! Guests had already began to show up, and were freaking out at the sight of the broken dishwasher...
Oliver Freddy, though he thought the decorations looked nice, didn't want to join party, so he sat down in the tv room that was currently quiet to study in his books. He didn't want to slouch on his studying, because he didn't want to let his mom down by coming home for summer with poor grades...
Inge on the other hand was busy greeting and socializing with the guests just when the door bell rang and the pizza arrived. It was very important for her to make everyone feel welcome at the party, so she had to talk to everyone atleast once.. She didn't want anyone to leave thinking the party was lame (or worse, that she was a loser for arranging a terrible party...)
Oliver Freddy was interrupted in his reading (studius interruptus...) by the doorbell, so he went to pick up the pizza and put it in the kitchen.. but he didn't serve anyone.. he considered going back to studying, but figured that since he was already interrupted he might as well just give a helping hand to those in need...
Inge was happy to see Debbie Richards at the party, whom she met about a year ago from now, right at the start of her second semester. They both share an interest in art, and Debbie, though a professor in business, was also enrolled as an art student for a while back then.
Then it was time to serve the pizza, to make sure everyone had their stomach filled with food, before the party would (hopefully) kick off..
Everyone sat down to eat their pizza and appeared to enjoy themselves, but Inge was still anxious about how this night would go.. She had never arranged a party of this size all on her own before, so she needed to take a time out and go to the bathroom upstairs to get spend a few moments by herself before she could return to the party...
When you've felt like and been told you're a loser for most of your life, I guess that feeling is gonna be hard to shake off, but really.. so far Inges party was going great, and she had no reason to worry...
Even Liz Tarry whom couldn't find a chair for herself because the cups were in the way was really enjoying herself while eating the pizza.. I have never before seen such an orderly group of sims eating together with no one complaining, standing in a line or stomping their feet... Well done Inge, you really should pat yourself on the back for this one! If only every meal and sims party could be like this one!
Only her boyfriend didn't attend the party, as he had gone back to the tv-room to try to study for a while.
Though he gave up after a while and joined the others at the party to dance as the volume of the music for some reason began to increase... Inge had also made it downstairs from the bathroom to enjoy a piece of the pizza too, and though everyone except Oliver Freddy had taken a bite off it, there was still a lot of it left somehow.. (yes, that's the same pizza. She only ordered one.. maybe it's one of those never ending pizzas and they won't have to buy another piece of food for the entire rest of their time there.. :P )
Oliver Freddy wasn't all that much in the spirit for partying though, and sat down to have a word with his girlfriend shortly before he decided to go to bed... He wasn't against Inge throwing a party to have fun, but he was a little miffy about having a juice keg party arranged so early on in the semester...
He wanted to make sure she knew that he would not take any responsibility for how this turned out should something go wrong, and that she would have to bear the burden of cleaning it up afterwards... "And please keep the music volume at a sensible level..."
"Oh.. sure, it was my idea to throw this party. I promise it won't get out of hand..."
Well, so far so good. The party was a good one, but it didn't really take off. After Oliver Freddy went to bed, Inge was approached by Ruby Parks to have another discussion about art, whereas the other party guests found themselves dancing partners and began slow dancing.
It wasn't until the other dormmates came home the party showed signs of a bit of tension, as Skip Taylors first reaction was to walk over to the record player to curse at it, because he wanted to go to sleep. :P
Inge didn't notice him, she was just starting to feel good about her party. Finally she had created a successful social event. If this doesn't increase her popularity on campus, then nothing will.. She already felt that her party had become a success and that nothing could go wrong from here... It was such a blissful moment. :P
She even did a perfectly synchronized cheer with Liz Tarry. This was the best party of the semester so far! :P
A few more of Inges dormmates had come home to join the party and get themselves a meal (in the background Omar Bjørkhaug to the left and Jonathan Dirk to the right) while Inge was slow dancing with Matthew Tellmer. Everything was going great so far, and there were no crazy shenanigans going on...
..or atleast not until these two guys (Jeffrey Dean to the left and Daniel Vaughn to the right) started running naked through the hallways.. :P It wouldn't have been a true party without at minimum one person streaking.
The party began to look like it was spreading out a little more, but the mood was still good. Ruby Parks was playing computer games on her own and Jonathan Dirk was giving Debbie Richards a hand with the juice keg, to the amusement of Liz Tarry. "Let's see how juiced we can get the professor..."
After having slow danced with Matthew Tellmer (and getting her feet stepped on numerous times) Inge eventually got tired and decided to go to bed as well, though that didn't stop the party as there were plenty of guests left still going strong..
Well, the mood was getting a little more tense over by the record player after Inge went to bed as this is where people began to pass out from the juice... only to wake up again to loud music blaring, which resulted in the record player being constantly turned off and then on again, because those that weren't passing out still wanted to dance. :P
Looks like the party had reached its end stage...
A little off balance there perhaps, professor? :P
Maybe Inge should've been awake now to say the party was over, because by the time Ayana Yuki came home (at way past three in the night..) the mood was getting a little tense in the hallway. After everyone had been enjoying repeated rounds to the juice keg their speech wasn't what it used to be, which lead to misunderstandings that eventually turned into petty arguments that noone would remember what was about come tomorrow morning...
"Someone has been throwing a party I see.. well, that's not my responsibility.. I'll just go into the kitchen to prepare myself a meal before going to bed..."
"Oh shoot.. how did it catch fire so fast...? I must have dozed off..."
..this is why the fire department would tell you not to make food when you come home at 3 in the night...!
"Yawn... did you set the alarm, Inge?"
"No.. no, it's the fire alarm! We have to get out!"
Downstairs in the kitchen people had noticed the fire too, and had congregated around it to do the usual panick dance ritual... except this one (Billie Jean Sparks) standing to the left.. "I'm not gonna worry about a fire without finishing my drink first, flarn it!"
..but it's a good thing then that we have a sober and brave man in the dorm to save the day (or night). Ayana: I don't know how this happened.. I was just.. I just put it in the oven, and then boom! It was on fire! Oliver Freddy: Next time do us all a favor and order take away or something..
There were two brave men on the lot as Jeffrey Dean eventually rushed in with a fire extinguisher as well, and together they just managed to put out the fire shortly after the fire fighter had arrived..
The fire fighter didn't scold anyone for it, but atleast he targeted the right person by pointing and laughing at her for being such a lousy cook.. I hope this embarrassing moment teaches her something.
Oliver Freddy and Inge went back to bed shortly thereafter, though it seems it's gonna take more than a burning kitchen to stop the party.. but for now.. I think it's time to say...
... good night.
----
PS: I wasn't trying to make it look like Jonathan Dirks private parts were on fire in the second to last picture, I was just adding the necessary censorship and I thought the fire symbol, given what just happened, was most relevant to use. :P
Chapter 20.2 – Onébegajávvre (Lake Onebega) - February 2023: Whichever one you feed...
Oliver Freddy and Inge had gone to bed now for the second time after the fire in the kitchen, but downstairs the party was in no way over...
Someone had called the police, and they appeared to show up strong with two units. However, only one of the officers actually left their car, and I think he was pretty ineffective at his job..
..because all he did was find Jonathan Dirk who just so happened to be outside this very moment and give him a scolding, before turning around and running back to his police car.
He didn't even go inside the house to stop the party and confiscate the juice keg and record player, like they did last time there was a party at the De Anda Hall.. but I guess not every police officer can be a good police officer, or something. :P
Nobody inside had even registered that the police had been on the lot and continued their partying like nothing had happened. It was only Jonathan Dirk now who desperately tried to keep things orderly by cleaning up the clothes strewn all over the place by the streakers running around...
The party lasted literally until early morning when Oliver Freddy and Inge got out of bed to eat breakfast..
Oliver Freddy wasn't at all happy about the mess of the dining area, and told his girlfriend he would not take any responsibility when it came to cleaning up the mess as he had to leave for his lecture..
Shortly after Oliver Freddy had left to go to his lecture another police car came screeching around the corner with full sirens on. This police officer actually made it into the house, however, he wasn't particularly effective in shutting the party down as nobody took him seriously and the police officer ended up being reprimanded by Omar, one of their dorm mates, instead...
The party didn't end until Inge herself figured out she had to take the rounds and tell the more or less clothed guests to pack it up and head back home before she could begin to clean up the mess they had left behind..
Afterwards she sat down on the couch, her favorite piece of furniture, to watch the cooking channel again when she was joined by Jonathan Dirk. However, he wasn't flirtatious this time, but rather a little tense.. he wasn't to happy about the mess created from the party, and made sure Inge got to hear about how he had helped to clean up some of it just the night before...
Oliver Freddy attending his morning lecture wasn't feeling to much better, after having slept poorly due to the loud music from downstairs, in addition to waking up to the fire alarm going off..
Inge found it best to leave Dirk behind for a while to continue the painting of the sunset she saw last semester, while she still had it in memory, before going to her own lecture a little later.
Just gotta have a quick cup of coffee first to try to keep awake..
..and off to her lecture as soon as Oliver Freddy came home from his. No time to talk, gotta go! (..but atleast she had cleaned up the place some, as well as she could..)
On the way home Oliver Freddy had stopped by the post office to pick up yet a couple more things he had ordered through mail. A small table and a fish bowl, because he wanted to do some research on an anchovy he had brought with him from Sunset Valley.. His interest in fishing and science comes from his aunt Monica, and what's exciting for him is that he has a bigger toolbox available to do examine things than what his aunt had in her younger days.. His mother Ranveig didn't care about this, she was more interested in the chess table and digging through trash..
He got his sample to examine later, while Inge was enjoying her lecture in art following yesterdays party...
Oliver Freddy went back to the chemistry table to discover another elixir, but was unsuccessful this time, but on the bright side, there were no explosions either. :P After he had been standing there for a good while mixing various substances, something started smelling pretty bad.. at first he thought it was something he had mixed together, but eventually he recognized the smell of filthy clothes..
All of the streakers from yesterday had left behind a good pile that had to be cleaned up...
His dormmates had tried to clean them up, but since the dorm didn't come with a washing machine, all they could do was collect them in a pile and drop them in the hallway.. so Oliver Freddy had to take them to the Findeisen laundromat to have them cleaned (or just to get rid of them). :P
---
Meanwhile Inge was running with an elated mood from her lecture, because Jeffrey Dean had just sent her a party invitation! He had enjoyed the yesterdays party so much, and wanted her to come over to his house for a bonfire party! Finally she was one of the cool people! Oh happy day! :P Just don't forget to study, Inge...
It looks like Jeffrey had decided to host his party in the garage, because that's where everyone had gathered. Inge quickly found him to celebrate them being university students and hoping that maybe she could become best friends with him..
She wouldn't let incompatible traits stop her, though she was starting to feel a little tired from not having slept enough, so she thought this was a good moment to go for a nap on the couch in his living room.. Liz really wanted to talk to him to, so she could have her turn for a while..
At the laundromat Oliver Freddy was getting hungry so he tried to buy a chocolate from one of the vending machines, but it wasn't cooperating with him, so he thought he could use his brave muscle power and ram it! That oughtta teach it a lesson!
Victory! Now time to eat...
Outside there was a sign of spring approaching as the snow was melting, and for the first time the young cubs of the mountains would feel the grass under their paws... running wild, running free and tumbling about in playful fighting among themselves...
Inges sleeping on the couch at the party was unpopular by Jeffrey, and he 'thanked' her for making his party lame.. but first, food..
Luckily, Jeffreys party guests have brought plenty of dishes. There's even a stuffed turkey on the counter, the perfect spring meal. However, Inge settles with the spaghetti, it's much simpler and quicker to eat...
She sits down with Mahmoud Yavari, who just finished eating his salad, where she tells him about her dreams of being a writer.. Inge has quite an imagination, the place she would escape to when she felt misunderstood by the rest of the world (and when she came home from school and her mother smelled like alcohol..).
She has plenty of stories in her head, and would love to put them down on paper along with her own drawn or painted illustrations.. Stories in rich and colourful worlds where fantasy meets reality; fluffy on the surface, but always with a certain undertow like pedal tones to an orchestral arrangement.. sometimes playing in harmony, other times creating dissonance... and sometimes you have to do dishes and house chores, while others are drinking...
Back at the laundromat, Oliver Freddy had been waiting in vain for the tumble drier to finish.. It should have stopped several minutes ago, but was still running. He put his book down and went over it, turning on every knob and pushing every button, but nothing happened.. Of course not, this was a tumble drier of the Buügfest variety, they were known for sometimes just malfunctioning like that...
Well, it wasn't his clothes anyway, so who cares.. a little grumpily though, he leaves the laundromat to watch the cool winter sun hang low over the lake... It does look nice around here sometimes, and he quickly forgets about the clothes before he heads over to the Science building to attend one of the evening classes in scientific research.
Inge feels guilty for upsetting Jeffrey by sleeping on his couch and walks over to apologize. She didn't mean to make his party boring, she just had to rest... Jeffrey is nice and accepts her apology.
Then she decides to try out the juice on his keg. It's a party after all, and she has noticed that the juice has the desirable effect of calming her mind and resolving the stress and anxiety she often feels in herself.. just one drink, it can't hurt.. right?
Oliver Freddy had just exited from the evening course in research, and though he had gotten some deeper insight into scientific methods, he hadn't gotten the skill point increase he was aiming for.. Some more practice would be needed to obtain that one.. but he thought it was enough science for now, and walked over to a nearby chess table to improve his strategic thinking instead..
Inge was still going for her target to make friends with Jeffrey. Her body movements were clearly getting a little more animated as she told Jeffrey the story of the kitchen burning just last night (even though he was there too, and even helped put out the fire..)
As another friendly gesture, she wanted to give him a gift, so she handed him the trick ball she had in her inventory. Jeffrey misunderstood the intent of the gift as a little while later (after they had gossiped about Harold Assange, hence the speech bubble), he blew a kiss at Inge...
She didn't want to light this fire, she already had a boyfriend and was only there to make friends to increase her own popularity.. luckily Miles Forthright was outside with them, so she could turn it into a group conversation...
Inge was still Inge and couldn't do to much socializing all at once, so she had to go inside to take a break and watch the cooking channel for a while..
..before she could continue her mission and have a pretty lengthy conversation (and cracking jokes as best as she could) with Jeffrey by the juice keg.
Before she helped him to get a drink..
They became friends by the end of the night, so Inge was halfway on her mission to become best friends with Jeffrey, but.. then she thought about her grades and her boyfriend. There are always choices to make, and she didn't want to come home stumbling to late in the night, so it was time to go home and get some sleep..
Oliver Freddy had made it home too, and was upstairs sharing jokes and discussing the university with Daniel Vaughn before going to bed..
"Yaawn.. ". Inges recently increased social standing have given her the opportunity to arrange bonfre parties, and maybe her next party will be of this variety.. but now it's bedtime once more..
..time to join her boyfriend, dreaming about fighting difficult tumble driers and noncooperative vending machines...
...as the winter season is approaching it's end, the fields have become green and the winds of spring are soon here to sweep across the landscape... good night.
Snow is falling again over the lake and the valley between the mountains as the calendar marks the entrance of spring, the second season of the year.. Winter always has to try to get the last word in before it can finally give up..
Inge is really happy when she wakes up this morning. Life couldn't have been better, as her mission to become more popular is going according to plan.
Oliver Freddy is a little grumpy about all the filthy clothes that always seem to accumulate on the lot, so he walks around to collect them and use the washing machine that he finally thought about ordering..
He had similar thoughts last semester, which led him to order a tumble drier. Sims logic is sometimes a little backwards, because they always want to buy the tumble drier first, before they figure out that a washing machine might also be useful... but as always, their wish is my command.
Inge still feels that Jonathan Dirk is attractive, but is clever enough to not make a move on him. She makes sure to mention the date she had with Oliver Freddy earlier by the breakfast table, just to make sure, before she goes to her lecture as usual.
Likewise Oliver Freddy was off to the Student Union after having entertained himself for a while watching the action channel. He was now going to try out some of the things he learned from yestermonths evening course to get a feel for how things worked in practice (and perhaps make some new amazing scientific breakthroughs).
The first thing he tried was a radiation experiment on a poor unknowing beetle he had found in the dumpster by the parking lot. The experiment ended up being successful and he had made a new and improved version of the beetle, but it wasn't enough to to reach the next level of scientific skill..
More experimenting was needed, and the next item on the list to be drowned in radiation of various kinds was a peppermint herb.
The herb experiment was succesful too, but it still wasn't enough to grant him the skill point, so he took a break from the radiation experiments for a while and went upstairs to do some reading..
After Inge is done with her lecture, she calls up Jeffrey Dean and Ruby Parks to meet up at the bowling alley. Inge still isn't done with Jeffrey Dean as she wants to become one of his best friends. In addition she has also set her sights on Ruby Parks whom she met at her own party from back in january, and wants to become good friends with her. Though its still snowing out, it feels like the sun is finally shining on Inge as she runs over to meet both of them. Lets just hope that the leaves on the trees didn't spring out to early and that winter is in fact soon over. :P
For some reason or other, they had agreed to meet up in the backyard of the bowling alley, as per Jeffreys suggestion. Inge thought that was a little peculiar, but was still happy to meet them... unfortunately, Ruby thought of something just as Inge arrived and excused herself to Jeffrey, saying she had some important business to do...
That left only Jeffrey and Inge to hang out. Jeffrey starts off the conversation by talking about the latest movie to hit the cinemas, "The fall of the moon", a fantasy-action movie about a university professor (who was imprisoned for murdering his own parents) that escapes prison with a plan to make the Simtopian planet and its moon collide and open up a portal that will unleash an army of beasts from a different world to conquer the planet and make him the supreme ruler.. of course.. :P
Inge invites him in to go bowling and they have a pretty good time doing so, even though Jeffrey appears to be a bit of a sore loser booing at Inge for outperforming him with the ball and pins.
Inges bowling skills are noticed by more than just Jeffrey as this guy called Paul Biden that has been watching them from a corner for a while admits to wanting to get to know her better...
Aside from a brief reply Inge doesn't pay him much attention and continues with her bowling, but the guy is still standing there and it's pretty obvious what he has on his mind.. :P
Then suddenly Karoliiná, the technology student Oliver Freddy briefly met at the cafeteria earlier, shows up and walks right inbtetween them as if to say hello on her way to the furthermost bowling lane. Well, hi there. :P
Inge and Jeffrey finish their bowling session and sit down on a nearby table to watch the shopping channel of all things...
Karoliiná interrupts her bowling game to walk over to talk to Jeffrey as well, a little to Inges annoyance, when another guy Nicolas Albright, has entered the bowling alley and has to shout out that he finds Inge interesting as well.. but she is taken, and has no desire to get to know this one better either..
Eventually Karoliiná goes back to bowling on her own again and the gentlemen that fancy Inge have all left the building, so she gets Jeffrey for herself with no interruptions, which is enough to finally become best buddies with Jeffrey. This has to be celebrated with taking a selfie of them both.. this one goes into the trophy album.
When that mission is complete, she has no need for Jeffrey anymore and goes back to bowling alongside Karoliiná and Ye Gangnam. Their bowling was almost synchronized, which was pretty cool to watch.
Oliver Freddy has finished reading and has gone home to eat his favorite meal for dinner..
After Inge is done bowling, she randomly gets the idea to go home and light a bonfire, because fire is cool I suppose, as long as it's kept out of the kitchen area...
Oliver Freddy and Inge has a harder time with their sleep scheduals this semester, often needing to nap in the middle of the day..
I'm not gonna sit and watch them napping, so I take a look around to see who else is out and about and I find Samantha Grey walking by the Championship Lake to sit down on the grass to make a sketch of the view and the scenery.
Samantha is a fellow art student of Inge, and that's pretty much the only thing they have in common. :P
A couple of stone throws away Karoliiná has found Jeffrey to complain about the woes of student life. As a student in technology she found it a little hard to wrap her head around the latest programming assignment from her professor..
Should the if loop go inside the for loop, or was it the other way around? Jeffrey, of course, haven't got a clue about programming.. that's for nerds.. but he still listens, and Karoliiná is satisfied just to have let off some steam. :P
Samantha joins them after finishing her sketch. She brings along her sense of humor and it turns into a group conversation where they repeatedly make fun of their silly professors. Poking fun and laughing at things is another way to let off steam. :P
Karoliiná then singles out Samantha and the conversation turns into one about the park, nature and outdoor living. Interestingly, Karoliiná refuses to address Samantha by her first name, and repeatedly only refers to her as Grey for some reason. Like that's all she is.. she's not Samantha, she's just... Grey.
She finds it a little bit hurtful that she won't use her first name, even though she is a Grey, and the girls end up walking seperate ways. Samantha walks off to enjoy a picnic on the grass and Karoliiná decides to return to her books to read more about those loops and how to structure her code for the programming assignment...
At the de Anda hall Inge just woke up from her nap, hungry but optimistic, and thought she could hit five birds with one stone... so she decided to call Ruby Parks again, and invite her over to eat at Simburger along with Liz Tarry, Nicole Lawry and Debbie Richards. Everyone agreed to come over except Debbie who just said no without really giving any explanation...
Oh well, so only four birds then, with the hunger being the fourth bird.
Inge drives over and meet the girls there. Ruby initiates the conversation and decides the topic to be about computers while they wait for Nicole that seem to be a few minutes late. When Nicole eventually arrives, she is a little shy to approach the other girls and stands waiting by the sidewalk for a while, until Inge calls her over to join the conversation.
Oliver Freddy has gone back to the Student Union to do another experiment, this time on some kona beans.
Back outside Simburger the girls are ready to go eat. Ruby decided to change her outfit to something nicer, because nothing says fine dining like a fast food joint. Nicole was getting impatient from the waiting and decided to go for a fly as an appetizer..
Liz: Nicole... what are you doing? I don't think that's what they meant when they said we might have to get used to eating bugs in the future...
Ruby (thinking): I'll just.. uh, let them go ahead.. do I really want to know these people? I'm not sure...
The others went into the restaurant to order their food, but Nicole was pulled away from her tracks by Abigail Kaya, a student in communication that wanted to interview her about her thoughts on whether students get enough financial aid to be full time students or not. A case that has been continiuosly debated almost for as far back as anyone can remember... Nicole didn't really see the problem, since she came from a wealthy family that had no problems giving her all the support she needed...
Abigail was provoked by Nicoles answers and decided to rant against wealthy people as Nicole went inside to eat. She may be privileged, but privilege doesn't appear to come with an understanding of the best outfit to wear.. somehow in Nicoles mind eating burgers with friends means you should put on swimwear.. Looks like she has something in common with Oliver Freddy there..
Speaking of Oliver Freddy, he was still at the Student Union doing research. His kona bean experiment had failed, so he tried to experiment with some minerals he had instead. The last experiment was much more successful again.. thought it seems learning science takes time. A lot of time, because even so, he still hadn't gone up one skill point..
Over at Simburger the girls (except Nicole) had finished eating, and had now gathered in the backyard again by the dumpster... They were all getting a little tired, because all they were talking about now were beds...
Liz missed her own bed so much, she didn't even have time to wait for Nicole to finish eating before running home.. and when Nicole eventually joined them outside, that's all she could talk about, too. :P
After reaching her goal of becoming friends with Ruby, Inge eventually took the hint of all this talk about beds and decided to tell the girls good night and split the friend group to go home.
After she came home, Inge thought about Nicole for a while before she went to bed. Nicole was a little special, for sure, but she still thought it might be a good idea to have her among her friends as well...
Oliver Freddy was still at the Student Union hard at work reading through his books to try to understand what went wrong with the Kona bean experiment..
He probably could have stayed up all night reading, but as he isn't immune to needing sleep at one point reading, no matter how focused, becomes useless and it's time to go home and hit the sack...
Chapter 20.4 – Onébegajávvre (Lake Onebega) - April 2023: Wildfire.
It's a fine spring morning by the lake between the mountains as Oliver Freddy gets up early for to hurry up and eat his breakfast, before running off for the last activity in medicine before the semester ends... Winter has been banished completely (for now), but the exam period has just begun to walk in circles around the town, waiting to sink its teeth and claws in the mass of students walking around campus to inject its venom of stress and anxiety into their bodies....
Oliver Freddy didn't even have time to finish his breakfast properly before he had to run, which left Inge to eat hers all alone. It wasn't to bad though, because Inge woke up in a good mood today. Pieces were falling into place for her socially finally, and today she felt could be her lucky day.
Oliver Freddy was already out in the morning sun rehearsing the bones of the skeleton with his other fellow students. Hmm, and it looks like Jeffrey Dean have signed up for medicine classes too now. :P
Inge had gone back up to their room to continue her painting. It was certainly an ambitious project to start such a large painting. She was beginning to doubt whether she would be able to finish it before the semester ends, because there were so many things to do.. studying, partying and making friends...
After the activity was over, Oliver Freddy was hungry after not having eaten a proper breakfast, so he went over to talk to Jeffrey. A new restaurant had just opened in town, and he wanted to go check it out.. Jeffrey was probably even more hungry than Oliver Freddy, so asking him to join was not a big issue...
Lizzie Mund stands to the left watching them. Lizzie Mund was Inges fist acquaintance on their first semester as students, and one she wanted to make friends with back then. However, as she was still very new and unfamiliar with both student life and the who, what and wheres of the campus area, she never ran across Lizzie again and so never got to make friends with her. Oliver tried to ask Lizzie to go check out the new restaurant too, but apparently she was on her way to go somewhere and couldn't join them.
So it's only the boys then, and off they run towards the new restaurant. Oliver Freddy thinks Jeffrey is almost acting a little to clingy as they run towards the new restaurant... It's not very far though, as it is just across the street.
The restaurant is called Skogskåtan (The Forest Cot) and focuses on local cuisine which means that deer and mulberries is guaranteed to be on the menu. The restaurant is built to resemble the shape of a local goahti, a type of traditional tent or sometimes wooden construction that has been in use by the deer herders of the area for centuries...
While Jeffrey and Oliver Freddy walked inside the restaurant, Inge was running fast for her activity in art. She was anxious that she was late, as she saw the other students had already started, but it turns out they had just decided to start early...
Jeffrey and Oliver Freddy had ordered each their meal and chosen their seats on the opposite ends of the restaurant.. not to close buddies yet. The restaurant has a cosy atmosphere with a crackling fire place in the middle – perfect to keep warm during the winter months and to create a warm and pleasant atmosphere all year around.
The people of the town are slowly coming over to check out this new, but very traditional, restaurant. While the boys are inside eating, a deep voice is heard from outside. There stands two local gentlemen in a discussion among themselves on whether they should go inside or not. The oldest of them is a little skeptical, but eventually the young one convinces the elder and they walk up the stairs to go inside..
The elder thinks about dining, which is natural, since it is a restaurant, but I don't think they came there to eat. They seem to be more attracted to the fire in the centre of the room, as that is the first thing they apporach. The elder decided to throw something from a test tube into the fire, creating a mystical blue smoke. I don't know what he threw in there if I'm to be perfectly honest. It didn't appear to have much of an effect apart from the visuals.. so far...?
Oliver Freddy and Jeffrey has eventually finished their meal. Oliver Freddy needed to use the bathroom, and the elder of the gentlemen walked up to Jeffrey and introduced himself as Amarok Grey, before Jeffrey contiuned to talk about another movie he had just watched...
Oliver Freddy was finished with his bathroom break and walked over to hang out with Jeffrey. The elder Grey appeared to have a strong fascination for fire as he rooted around in it and added more logs to it to make it grow larger.
What I assume to be the elders son did the same thing, as the elder decided to throw another mysterious test tube into the fire. He clapped with joy as it created a small explosion followed by green smoke and an intense and awful smell filled the room and ingrained itself in every surface and every piece of clothing. Vile!
Oliver Freddy finds it absolutely appaling, and decides to leave the restaurant to run to the gym to take a shower (as he is just a little bit closer to the gym than he is to his dorm). Who are these people and why are they acting in such a foul way to spread this filthy smell inside a newly opened restaurant? Oliver Freddy didn't know and couldn't make sense of their actions, all he knew right now was that he was in dire need of a shower, and quickly.. He felt absolutely filthy, almost to he bone...
At the art students drawing activity Inge was now left drawing alone, as Samantha had taken charge of the rest of the group and relocated them all to make a sketch of the fountain. The sound of water is a soothing sound, just like the small meltwater streams from the mountain glaciers during spring...
Oliver Freddy had been hard at work to improve his skills in science recently, so after showering off the filthy smell of dirt, he sat down on a couch in the gyms locker room to entertain himself with some light reading for a change...
On the grass by the art institute the group that started early was already finished with their drawing exercise, and Samantha begin to tip toe in a circle around the group. She wanted in part to amuse herself and in part show the group that she was their leader and wouldn't be afraid to discipline anyone there by the method of humiliation if it should be necessary..
Debbie Richards hadn't really done anything to deserve being disciplined, but she was the oldest of them, and so Samantha felt it necessary to challenge her position and put her in her place...
Samantha wasn't done using the megaphone. She wanted her voice to be heard as she went on to deliver another rant about hierarchy... the main message being that if you want to rise in rank here, you have to prove your worth!
Inge had heard all the commontion from afar and became curious. Who was this Samantha, and why was she loud? Inge wasn't looking to challenge anyones authority or whatever position they thought they had in the group, she was just curious about this loudmouth and wanted to get to know her better.. what makes this one tick the way she does?
Inge starts the conversation by talking about her favorite music, hoping to learn something about Samantha that way. Eyes are the windows to the soul they say, but figuring out someones taste in music is probably a whole lot more informative – or atleast more tangible, as music often conveys both meaning and mood... Inge learns that Samantha is a big fan of music, in particular that of indie pop and rock – a type of music said to value independence, but that still has a certain group mentality associated with it, as do most cultures and sub-cultures anyway. :P
Inge picks up from Samantha that she kind of feels a little bit like an outsider among most people of the town, a feeling which Inge can understand and relate to. Having a group of friends – something that gives one a sense of belonging somewhere – seems to be important to both of them, though perhaps for somewhat different reasons.
Samantha seems to take a liking to Inge, and thinks they should go fishing one day, after they have finished their exams of course. To be one with nature and to catch their own food... Inge prefers to sit on the couch and watch tv, or atleast doing some kind of indoor activity, but she also wants to make friends, so why not? Maybe one day they'll do that..
Another important thing for Inge is family, so she leads on by talking about her own, her mom and dad and her two younger sisters from back in Sunset Valley. She has hopes that this will make Samantha inclined to share something about her own family, but Samantha seems very secretive there. She mentions that she has a family, but she speaks very vaguely about it, and doesn't say who they are or how many of them there are.
Inge isn't just curious about Samantha. She still wants to make friends with Nicole, so she calls her over to hang out and make a crowd of them.
She is excited that Nicole would come over and runs over to the front entrance to meet her.
Meanwhile Oliver Freddy has finished reading the book and wants to take another course in gardening. As he runs by their dorm he notices a group of horses standing by.. It's definately spring time and with milder weather the animals appear to have emerged from their winter lairs and head into town....
Interesting that Inge and Oliver Freddy are choosing such different parts and have almost switched roles. Oliver Freddy was the most popular one in the beginning, now its Inge doing all the socializing.. Oliver Freddy seems to be here mostly to learn as much as possible.. but then again, he was initially the driving force of them going to university in the first place, so.. I guess it's not to surprising. :P
Inge is now the leader of her group as she stakes out the path for them and runs towards the Grotto to hang out. However, there is trouble as suddenly Nicole declares she finds it boring already and leaves the group...
So then there were two.. Inge concludes after this that she will ditch Nicole completely in favor of Samantha. It turns out they had a little more than just their interest in art in common, and Nicole..? She was just to different from them, with her random impulses and spoiled rich girl background...
So they enter the grotto to discuss art and painting for a while, and right next to them Karoliiná sits on the floor, now working to finish her last programming assignment for the semester. She has to think pretty hard, because this is a big one where she has to combine everything she has learnt so far...
Inge thinks she has found a new friend in her fellow art student Samantha, and asks if they can study together, you know, since she can almost feel the exam staring at them from around the nearest corner... but Samantha declines. Reading books isn't her preferred way of gaining knowledge.. Samanthas approach is much more practical, it's learning by doing she says. Just like her family has done it through multiple generations.. the old teaches the young by showing how its done, and the young goes out to practice.. That's the most effective way to learn, that's how knowledge sticks according to Samantha.
"How strange... doesn't she read books? How can you be a university student without reading books?" Inge ponders about it, and it makes her more curious about this Samantha.. She wants to learn more about her, to become good friends with her..
Of course, Samantha isn't entirely wrong, practice is a good way to learn. And practice, that is just what Oliver Freddy has gone to do after his gardening course. Back at their dorm, he now wants to do gardening, so he goes to plant his failed-experiment kona bean as well as the improved herb into the ground to see what will become of them...
Oliver Freddy has now decided his brain can't take in any more knowledge, and goes to watch something pointless for the rest of his time to relax his grey matters and put him at ease in time for the exam...
Samantha then wants them to play a game of pool. She wants to feel Inge out, to know how she fares in the game to establish the rank inbetween them. Does she have what it takes to guide them, or is she better fit to be a subordinate? And for the record, she really meant it when she said they should go fishing one day....
While the girls are still playing their game, Oliver Freddy has already gone to bed early, before the sun has set. Of course, in the darkest of winter this might not have looked so early, as the sun stays in the sky longer and longer for each day as summer approaches. I'm still with Oliver Freddy on this one, it's important to rest and get enough sleep before your exam, so.. good night to you. :P
As the match between the girls draw closer to its end and it looks like Inge is about to win this one, Samantha gets increasingly adamant about them going fishing. Inge tries to get a word or two in about the things that are most important to her, such as art and family, but Samantha is not letting go of them going fishing.. "So you know how to play pool, but can you catch your own food and then cook it?" Samantha wants to know.. Something tells me Inge will continuously be put to the test here..
The game ends as it must, and Inge ends up winning, though it was a close match as Samantha wasn't to far behind. Inge gets hungry and walks over to the bar to eat, when Karoliiná (who just finished eating by the same bar) walks over to Samantha to lecture her about cleaning, which is kind of.. odd...
It looks like Karoliiná wants to play a game of her own. She changes the topic from cleaning (which made it sound a little bit like she was trying to imply Samanthat doesn't know how to keep things clean...) to garlic.. not as an ingredient in food, but as something to keep in ones home to ward off evil... Samantha is not happy about the way this conversation is going, and wants to talk about something else.
While Inge is over at the bar eating, Samantha wants to talk about the joys of exercise, in particular that of jogging or running outside. "Wouldn't it be a good idea if we could start a runners club or something to go run together? How about every thursday evening at 18?" Samantha suggests, but Karoliiná isn't very interested...
"I prefer to do my exercise alone" she says "I wasn't made to run in packs..."
"Why not?" Samantha asks "Me and my brothers have done that since we were just cu.. umm, since we were just small children.."
"I knew it.. you're one of them, aren't you? You're a greybone!" Karoliinás voice was spiteful as she uttered the last word...
"That's hurtful...". Samantha immediately slouches when she hears what Karoliiná is saying..
"I'm sorry, but I just can't be seen hanging out with greybones..."
"Please don't call us that.. don't call me that.. My name is Samantha...Samantha Grey..."
Greybone... the word felt like a punch in the stomach for Samantha and her usually loud and boisterous voice wasn't much more than a restrained whimper...
"We all do what we've been taught by our own elders..." Samanthas feeling of hurt turned to anger as she went over to the counter to order food.. This wasn't a new thing, her parents have heard just the same, and their parents again. There's always been a feud for as far back as anyone can remember between the people of the town and the Greys of the mountains, with the people being animal herders and the Greys being hunters...
Samantha sat down to eat next to Inge. She seemed friendly and wasn't from around here, and so she probably didn't have a side in this. Samantha was still a little tense and didn't feel much like talking, but sitting next to someone whom she perceived as friendly (atleast for now) made her feel a little bit at ease. Samantha didn't want to fight a war, she just wanted acceptance for herself and her family to live their life on their terms, though in case something should arise she hoped that she had found a new ally in Inge...
Inge didn't know excactly what was going on, but she could tell Samantha wasn't feeling her best for some reason. She didn't like the silence and wanted to lift the mood so she tried to start a conversation about children and family. It made Samantha feel a little better, as she enjoyed this topic too. Family, friendship and cooperation were important values for Samantha and pretty much anyone from the Grey family. Just like Inge, Samantha also dreamt of raising her own one day, watching them learn and grow... Hopefully in a world that could be a little more understanding...
It was getting late and Inge felt the need to go home and get some sleep before exam day, but she wanted to hang out with Samantha again at a later time, so as an ending note she suggested they should meet up and have a cup of coffee one day.
Coffee and cake, perhaps. Samantha would agree to this on the condition that they also would go fishing together one day...
Then it was time to finally say goodnight, and it looks like the girls have bonded pretty well, because they say goodbye with a hug, when I was expecting just a wave and a good night.
Well, this is cute, they both look happy to have made a new friend, and so this day ends on a happy note for both of them.
Not so much for everyone though, because in the background while Inge and Samantha were bonding, someone else were fighting.. The aforementioned Paul Biden* had a prolonged and pretty serious argument with Manisha Kapoor where he accused her of cheating on him.. and now he calls her a vegetable... that relationship is probably on a countdown, but atleast Samantha is happy now..
Good night.. hopefully everyones exam will go well.
* I so much want to call him Joe. These names can't be random.
Chapter 20.5 - Onébegajávvre (Lake Onebega) - May 2023: Wildfire, part II..
My name was grown from stones. The grey stones of the mountains.
It's exam day for all the students in town, and fire is the first thing on Oliver Freddys mind as he wakes up this morning... He has been a good student, and is pretty confident his exam will go well. He is still young, so maybe tonight he will set something on fire. Not the entire world, perhaps, but something a little more localized.. no, not the kitchen either... a bonfire in the backyard should do.
He was the first one of everyone on the dorm to wake up, so he got to eat his breakfast in peace.. until Cody showed up. I'm trying to tell a story here, but even I don't know everything that happens behind the scenes.. It became one of the themes of this day, that whenever Cody was nearby, everyone showed disapproval of him, but I don't know what he has done to get this reaction from people...
Inge didn't mind him though. She thought it was nice to have a moment of togetherness eating breakfast, before she had to run off to her exam. At the end of her second year at university, the people she shares a dorm had in a way become her family away from family...
If the weather held up, maybe she could go fishing with Samantha later. She still thought about her since their meeting last month, and hoped she was doing alright. She had a feeling Samantha wasn't telling her everything. Well, it wasn't just a feeling. It was pretty obvious there was something Samantha hadn't told her. She was hoping to earn her trust and that she would eventually open up about whatever it was...
Oliver Freddys exam wasn't until after lunch, so he had plenty of time to relax and actually go fishing.. He hadn't fished around here before, so he didn't know where the best fishing spot was, but as Senior Lake was the biggest lake he knew (apart from the lake that gave the place it's name...), he thought it should be a good spot with plenty of fish.
He managed to catch a couple of ray-finned-fish before he ran out of bait and decided to call it quits. He wasn't happy about either catch and it looked like he considered throwing them out again as he held them up to gauge their weight and quality. They were only average quality fish, and of course he was hoping for something better. Not because he wanted to cook them, but because he wanted to gather the best possible scientific data. One day he would show those professors that always rejected his findings.. one day... He still kept the fish though, maybe something good could come out of them, and if not, atleast he would gain experience before the big find...
With plenty more time to kill he went over to the Coffee Shop (passing by a house known as "The Grey Junior house" on the way) 'to relax a little more reading a book about a day in the life of a plantsim...
Plantsims? The book was written as if plantsims was something that existed, and the foreword even suggested that with a high enough skill in science or by planting a certain special seed one could possibly even grow or create a plantsim.. Oliver Freddy dismissed the idea as fictional. It sounded like something his aunt Monica would come up with in one of her ramblings... It wasn't even pseudoscience, but he found it an entertaining read nonetheless. There's plenty of people around, sure, but they're not growing on trees...
In the foreground is Vuolle Onébegajávrre (Karoliinás father) talking to Ashley Corono about the legend of the three wildfires that is said to one day consume and end the town.. The legend is one that has been passed down through generations. It's origin is unclear, but archeologists and historians has so far concluded that it might stem from a forest fire that almost decimated the entire town somewhere between 800 and 900 CE.
Vuolle is then backed up by his wife Márjánna sharing the same legend, but Ashley (who is not a local) dismisses the entire thing as nonsense and doesn't want to hear more about it..
Flowers are much more effective than old legends steeped in dubious lore... I can only assume he's not to serious about this, given that his wife is also present...
Over by the art institute, Inge just passed her exam with flying colours. Hooray. Inge is on her way over the entrance on the other side of the building to meet up with Samantha (who also passed her exam). It was clear to everyone that took part in the exam this morning that there was something different about Samantha today. It wasn't excactly what Inge had expected... Maybe Oliver Freddy was on to something when he would say that he could hear wolves howling whenever there was a full moon... Could it really be that Samantha was a.... ? How was that even possible? This was a level of being different that Inge hadn't seen before....
Samantha was already seated by a desk in the back of the room when Inge entered. Inge tried to get eye contact, but Samantha was seemingly busy carefully laying out her pencils on the desk while waiting for the cue to open the exam papers...
Samanthas new appearance didn't make Inge any less curious and she still wanted to become better friends with her. Well, that and after they had connected so well just the other day, she couldn't just begin to ignore her.. Inge knew very well what it meant to be ignored, so she couldn't do that to anyone almost no matter how different they were.. So there was only one thing to do, to brave it and approach Samantha...
As it was raining pretty heavily by the time their exam ended, Inge thought it best to invite her home to do Inges favore thing, to watch tv sitting on the couch, instead of going fishing. That was atleast one of the reasons Inge told herself to justify not going fishing alone with Samantha..
While Inge and Samantha is fast on their way to the De Anda Hall, its time for Oliver Freddy to put away the book about plantsims and head for his exam in the science building just across the road.. and maybe on the way he will get an answer to the question of whether it is most fruitful to run or walk through the rain.. what keeps you most dry? :P
Samantha would no doubt win that competion. Not only is she using an umbrella, she is also a much faster runner.. Inge has to struggle to keep up. Such power! Inge is impressed, but also a little intimidated by her new friend.
When they arrive at the dorm Samantha announces that she is hungry like a .. well, you know. Inge doesn't want to upset Samantha, so she immediately goes to prepare the best lunch meal she can make, a fine omelette with mushrooms..
All those hours spent watching the cooking channel on tv has paid off. Samantha really enjoys the meal in umm... her own way, and Inge gets her wish and Samantha accepts her as one of her best and most trusted friends.
I'll admit I'm not entirely comfortable with how Samanthas eating is portrayed here. If I were just writing without using screenshots, I wouldn't have described it as this animalistic, but then again, if this wasn't based on the sims universe I probably wouldn't even have werewolves in the first place...
After they are now both well fed, they can do what Inge wants to do. Watch tv and talk about homes and family...
While they are watching tv, Oliver Freddy returns home from his exam after having passed with flying colours as well (like he knew he would), and now finally is the time for him to arrange a bonfire party.. Rain or shine, though he hopes the rain will let up soon...
He's not going all out with the extravagant coloured lights and decorations like his girlfriend Inge did, but the juice keg is still there, along with a buffet table and the mandatory plastic cups.. now placed on a shelf instead of a table, so that people won't complain about the table being unaccessible when they want to eat because a plastic cup was in the way....
Samantha was of course also invited to the party, since she was already in the building and since she had made such good friends with Inge. After they had finished watching tv she decided to tell a joke at her own expense. She can do that, not sure if anyone else should. :P
Inge appreciates that Samantha is able to laugh at herself for being different, as well as appreciating that Samantha has enough trust in Inge to tell such a joke, and decides to give her a warm and friendly hug.
Guests should be arriving soon, so it's time for Oliver Freddy to light the fire and serve the food, hoping that the fire won't be put out by the rain...
It took a while for the rain to let up, and I think Oliver Freddy must have been worried about his party guests being hungry, because he had decided to order a pizza while everyone was still inside filling the hallway with random university slogan cheers.. :P
Inge had been in the dining room conversing and joking with Samantha when Debbie Richards joined the conversation.
Meanwhile the rain had come to an end, and Oliver Freddy had gotten a pretty decent bonfire going. Now the party could begin as intended..
Inge had gone outside to check out the bonfire, which left Samantha alone with Debbie. Samantha then wanted to say hi to Debbie in her own way, but Debbie wasn't to appreciative of this and now it was Samanthas turn to be put in her place...
This proved to be a pretty big wedge in the relationship between Samantha and Debbie, and Samantha would take to dislike Debbie for atleast the rest of the evening... Time to head outside and join the others watching the fire...
Now that Inge had become good friends with Samantha, she walked inside to greet Nicole and give her a second chance after she ditched them before the last time they tried to hang out..
Inges talking to Nicole was interrupted by Oliver Freddy finally deciding to serve the pizza and have everyone sit down to eat..
There was an empty seat next to Debbie, but Samantha sure as hell wasn't going to use that one!
Sitting next to Nicole, though she had her quirks, was much better...
Billy Jean Sparks was sitting on a table all alone as she confessed her interest in Jonathan Dirk.. and I don't know where the sandwich came from.. :P
I didn't see Billy Jean try to make a move on him, though, nor did she cause a scene.. Maybe she is just a girl who thinks he is the one.... or maybe she just followed some strong advice, and remembered to always think twice... :P
After everyone had eaten it was time to gather around the and enjoy the warmth from the fire outside again. The rest of the party went by relatively peacefully, noone passed out on the lawn, the police didn't arrive to do a lousy job and contrary to what I had expected there wasn't a single streaker in sight... Almost a stark contrast to the party Inge threw earlier, but as long as everyone had a good time, that is what matters the most.
Oliver Freddy wasn't done sciencing, and wanted to perform some tests on Debbie, which included testing her reflexes. Good catch! :P
..and then he went inside to study on the computer! Come on, man.. what are you doing? You're done for the semester, this has no purpose!
"I'm just trying to get a head start for the next semester..."
Right, well, as you wish...
People outside were still enjoying the bonfire, and Inge was thinking about the fishing trip with Samantha.. Now that it didn't rain, however, it was probably a little late for that now..
Even though Inge got out of bed after her boyfriend, she felt like she had been up since early morning, and decided to call it a night...
Oliver Freddy was also getting tired, but now that Inge had gone to bed he thought he could take his turn to bond with Samantha as well.
Or so I thought, because the next thing he does is pretty bold as he asks her for a DNA sample.. It appears that everything he does one way or another revolves around science.. I'm also surprised that Samantha actually lets him do it.. I would have imagined that she wouldn't just let her DNA get sampled like that, like she was some kind of object to be performed research upon...
I suppose Oliver Freddy being Inges boyfriend would automatically give him a few trust points...
Well, congratulations Oliver Freddy.. with this sample, maybe you can learn something about a Grey's anatomy.... He is a medical student after all, and if he can figure out something useful, it might be of benefit to the Greys too...
The party was coming to an end soon, and people were just about to leave when Samantha went inside to give Ruby Parks a last helping hand with juice keg.. and being very vocal about what she thought about Debbie..
That was pretty much the last of it. There were a few that didn't enjoy the party as much, but Ruby, Samantha and Debbie could all agree that atleast they had a good time.
It was now only Jeffrey Dean and Che Justice still wanted to keep the fire going, but as Oliver Freddy has also joined his girlfriend in bed, I think its time this one ends here and we'll see them again tomorrow when they go back to Sunset Valley for summer...
I can take all the blame, for the sake of my name
Our blood on your hands, running hot in the veins
They say: "Do yourself well and stay away from your family" - what!?
Wildfire, part II: One with the mountain – Sonata Arctica
Chapter 20.6 - Onébegajávvre (Lake Onebega) – June 2023: Cycle of stones.
It's a lovely June morning by the lake as the last of the migratory birds have returned to the mountains for the summer..
..and Inge and Oliver Freddy are looking sweet in their sleep.
Inge wakes up first to check her report card, and it's no secret she did well, even in the course about the theory of song, which was, luckily just theory and not practice. Hooray! Just not so loud, your boyfriend is still sleeping!
Then it's time for breakfast where she sits down next to Jonathan Dirk. He didn't need to read a fortune cookie to know that this was going to be a special day for him.. (but in the days waiting for his exam results he had frantically done so anyway, and secretly browsing the web for any horoscope he could find! ) He felt a lot more relaxed now that he could happily tell Inge that he had passed his last course for his degree in sports, and that he would finally get his robe and diploma at this semester graduation ceremony!
Ayana had received the same positive news as Jonathan this morning, that she too had passed her final exam, and would later be awarded her diploma for her degree in communication. No more studying, and soon it will be time to find a job.. but first she thought she could finally get to clean up this place a little.
Inge would then seize the opportunity while her boyrfriend was still sleeping to finish the painting she started just before christmas last year. It was a pretty big painting, so it took a long time to complete..
When Oliver Freddy woke up to check his exam results he was equally as nervous as his girlfriend, but he wouldn't need to worry to much. No doubt would his mom (and probably his aunt too) be very proud of these results. :P
Their report card.
Report card dictionary.
Simnavn = Sim name.
Karakter for semester = Semester grade.
Studiepoeng = Credits (Literal: Study points).
Totalkarakter = Total grade.
Kunst = Art.
Medisin = Medicine. (... surprised? :P)
Kommunikasjon = Communication.
Teknologi = Technology.
Økonomi = Finance.
Idrett = Sports.
Skip Taylor didn't do very well. I don't know what he has been up to, but he can't have been studying much.. maybe if he got rid of those sun glasses he is always wearing he would be able to actually read something.
Inge reached level 8 of the painting skill and just manage to finish her painting, which she named simply "Sunset in December", and hang it up on the wall before the graduation ceremony started. She wasn't perfectly happy about it though, thinking it looked pretty average. Next time, she thought, maybe she should use more oil paint and less water color. She thought it looked a little to much like something she could have painted when she was still in elementary school, but then again, one is always ones own worst critic.. I think it's fine. A little pink, but fine.
This is a big day for Ayana and Jonathan. Don't be nervous, it's just a graduation ceremony.. it will be just fine.
Professor Madeleine Noetal is always happy to watch students graduating. :P
Entering their graduation ceremony. So cute. Jonathan really does look a little nervous here... "I hope I won't trip and fall when I walk up to receive it, I hope I won't trip and fall, I hope I won't..."
Relax man! I'm sure it'll be alright! You're graduating! This is a day of joy and celebration!
Of course, Inge and Oliver Freddy joined them as well to watch their graduation ceremony.
There were many graduates and the ceremony took quite a while to finish, so while it was going on I made an attempt to zoom in and capture what went on outside, but unfortunately then the skies came tumbling down and the mainframe of the Matrix crashed to it's desktop and whatever happened out there was forever erased from the mysterious aether before it could even begin to be etched into the stones of history.....
Fortunately, though, a back up system was in place and Ayana and Jonathan still got their diplomas, with Jonathan claiming afterwards to have had one of those strange déjà vu moments that he sometimes has.. Well, I don't know... I have no idea what he is talking about there...
Ayana is so cute, she even kisses her diploma.
Oliver Freddy and Inge both took their turns to congratule the newly graduates afterwards, and have a bit of talk with them.
It was such a happy day and the sun was shining. Inge knew that they would leave for home soon, and she wanted to make the most out of the time left before summer, so she called up Samantha to finally go on the fishing trip she had sort of promised her earlier..
In the background romance may befinding Ayana, as she was approached by Matthew Tellmer who began to flirt with her. A sign of what is to come, or maybe not. I suppose anything could happen, so who knows what the future will bring to Ayana and Jonathan from now on...
Inge had no time to think about that, she had to run off to meet Samantha to go fishing. Though Inges mom Iselin is an avid sports fisher, Inge is pretty clueless... She had no idea which spot to pick, so she chose the Landeberg Park, the most remote place around she could think of. There would have to be some fish there, right? Oliver Freddy went along to in his own car, and he drove a little faster so he's already running ahead (He is there somewhere in the distance if you can spot him.. :P)
Samantha didn't need to be asked twice to meet up. Spending the afternoon outside fishing in this beautiful weather was a perfect thing to do.
While the girls were meeting up and talking, Oliver Freddy had gone around to find them something that could be used for bait. The apple tree that grew there was glaringly obvious, but he was afraid it wouldn't be enough, so after a bit of searching through various brambles and bushes he managed to find a small cinnamon plant. It sounds a little experimental to use cinnamon as bait for fish, but who knows, it might work. :P
Then it was time for fishing. Inge and Oliver Freddy picked their spots a little apart to not fish on top of each other, but Samantha had another idea. :P
"I'll fish right over here" she says, and I'm worried she's gonna whack Inge over the head with the fishing rod, or worse. :P
"Just stand still while I make my throw. This looks like a really good spot, and I'm not gonna let you have it all to yourself!"
"Et voilá!" she says confidently after making her throw. I'm not really sure how she did that, but she sure makes it look easy.
It's Oliver Freddy however that catches the first umm.. fish. A freshwater jelly fish.. it's probably best used to do experiments on. I don't think it's something you would take to the frying pan, possibly, maybe. :P
It doesn't take long for Samantha to catch a blowfish, which is a more valuable type of fish than the jelly fish, which places Samantha in the lead in case one should view this as a competition. Inge might need to dry off her clothes when they are done fishing, because Samantha pulled the fish up dangerously close to Inges.. feet. :P
Inge thinks it's enough with the fishing when Samantha catches her second blowfish in excactly the same way and decides to call it quits. "Alright.. you win..."
The sun is about to set, and so it won't be long until Inge and Oliver Freddys transport will arrive to take them back home. Inge wants to use this last moment to bond a little more, talk about the semester that passed, and of course, the first time she noticed Oliver Freddy on the school bus back home in Sunset Valley.
Oliver Freddy has something else on his mind, and does his best to ruin this otherwishe beautiful moment with a a rant about politicians and their spending of the tax payers money..
Then it's time to say the final goodbye before summer and the girls exchange their last warm hug before Oliver Freddy and Inge has to return to their dorm where the car is waiting...
"You take care, Samantha. I'll see you again in august..."
Samantha howled her last goodbye at them as she watched them run to their cars. It quickly gets cold in the mountains after the sun has set, even in summer...
"I'll be thinking about you..."
Back at the dorm Inge was happy thinking about returning to her own family soon. Happy about the new memories and friends she had made this semester, and happy about the thought of returning for the next one! Of course, she would be missing Samantha too, especially, so there were definately mixed feelings about leaving, but it still had to be done.. and a summer doesn't last forever anyway.
Oliver Freddy was already in the car waiting, and the driver pressed the horn.. He wasn't going to drive all night and wanted to get there before it got to late.. Time to go now... Time to hit the road and say goodbye..
Goodbye student dorm and smelly food leftovers. Goodbye Jeffery, goodbye Debbie and goodbye Nicole. Goodbye Ayana, goodbye Jonathan and best of luck for your future!
Goodbye Samantha, goodbye University, goodbye lake, goodbye mountains and stones...
...and hello Sunset Valley. The town showed itself from its more rainy side as they arrived from the mountains..
It takes a while to drive from the lake to Sunset Valley, and since it was so late and Ranveig and Robert Bråge was likely already in bed, Inge invited Oliver Freddy to spend the night at her and her parents house. Now that it looked like it was raining more than ever they just had to sit outside and watch the clouds drift by for a while before getting inside...
Inge happily greeted her sister Kristina as she walked into their old bedroom to go to sleep in her old bed.
The guest bed was occupied by Inges mom Iselin taking a nap for some reason, so Oliver Freddy had to make do temporarily with the couch in the living room downstairs. This made it look like there had been a recent fight between Inges parents, but I guess not, because as soon as they woke up everything looked just fine as they kept repeatedly flirting with each other and exchanging flowers...
Or maybe this was just their way of making up, I don't know. It's hard to tell what happened when I seemingly land right in the middle of something.
The Reppe family is probably the most family oriented family, because when they youngest one Emmy is in need of something, they all queue up to help out. Yes, even Jarle did eventually, even though he's not in this picture. He will often sit in the bedroom reading right next to Emmy, which is just really good parenting. Now that I made sure that Iselin can no longer drink since I locked away the juice bar, that baby should have a pretty good upbringing..
Oh, wait.. well, ok, you can have that one I guess, just don't do that to often.. or I'll act like a repo man and take that one away too...
Now that Jarle and Iselin aren't using the beds anymore, Oliver Freddy has gone upstairs to sleep, but then Inge wakes up to watch tv on the couch and just sit up in the middle of the night drinking coffee.. She's not really a night owl, but acts like one often anyway when left completely to her own control.
Inges notes:
Sometimes when I'm at home at my parents house especially I just wake up in the middle of the night and can't fall back asleep no matter how hard I try.. It's a little hard to relax in this house, so.. and I figure there's no use in lying there staring at the ceiling waiting, so I might as well just get up to watch some tv and have a coffee.. you know..?
Narrators notes:
Well, not really, but ok...
Over at the Motorsen house there is another one that got up early to watch tv as Ranveig has sat down on her chair in the hallway upstairs to watch old morning reruns of her favorite romance tv-show for the nth time... Everything is by the usual here..
Eventually Robert Bråge woke up and they went downstairs to have a nice breakfast of french toast leftovers before Robert Bråge sat down by the computer to continue writing his science fiction novel, "A train through time". Ranveig sent Oliver Freddy a message wanting to know where he was since she hadnt heard from him and since he didn't come home last night.
It's unlikely that Oliver Freddy would be reading this message since he was still asleep in the guest bed over at Inges parents house. :P
Like Oliver Freddy earlier, Ranveig had made sure to buy a tumble drier for her home without thinking that a laundry machine might also be useful, so when the dirty clothes piled up she still had no choice but to pay a visit to the local laundromat...
Over at the laundromat she meets up with Hogne Nielsen, Ingrids boyfriend, to talk fondly about her favorite tv shows.. Her favorite scenes are of course the ones where everyone gets married and lives happily ever after.. a stark contrast to her own life...
This Hogne Nielsen guy, if I am to be honest, I never liked him since I first saw him and it annoys me that he is Ingrids boyfriend, however I will let fate run its course... Of course, once he learnt about Ranveigs favorite tv shows, he put two and two together and probably thought this was a good chance to take advantage of the single mother, and immediately began flirting with her and handing her flowers.. Romance, finally! Of course Ranveig got weak in the knees for a moment there and couldn't immediately say no..
It has always been a sore spot for Ranveig to watch her younger sister and brothers get married and have successfull romantic relationships (atleast from the outside perspective), when she, as the oldest sister hasn't even been married...
Ranveig knew that accepting flirtatious behaviour from him probably wasn't the best idea, not just because he was much younger than her, but also because he was still coupled with Ingrid.. She found an excuse to put him aside when she received a reply from Oliver Freddy that their journey home had gone by without hassle and that he was all well and good over at Inges house. The perfect message at the right time to put the anxious mothers heart at ease, and so she could push Hogne aside for a while and foucs on picking up her clean clothes and get out of there...
Back at the house Robert Bråge had just finished his first novel at 150 pages long and received the title "Amateur writer" from the local business association. Not bad at all for a 13 year old. :P Being who he is, he wanted to spend the rest of the day outdoors and so he called his friend Margrethe to hang out at the park.
After finishing her laundry, Ranveig wanted to get pumped so she ran down the road to the gym to do some strength training by the stereo on the second floor. Ingrids father Jonathan is seen working out in the background to the right.
His wife Kathrine (5 months pregnant) may have been working out too, as she was seen leaving the gym in her fitness wear.
People were enjoying this nice day out in the park when Robert Bråge met up with Margrethe to discuss the latest issue of his favorite cartoon. His aunt Monica and his cousin Lise Veronica is seen on the swings in the background.
--
Over at Inges parents house, Inge and Kristina was still walking around in their sleepwear when Tori Kimura came over to visit to sit down and watch tv. :P
At the park Margrethe had began flirting with Robert and what was initially just a friendly meeting became a date...
Robert then thought it would be a good idea to take his now date over to go bowling, and then later perhaps watch a movie...
..or maybe they should go to the prom tonight, as Margrethe asked Robert to slow dance to the pop music that was playing over the speakers and told him she didn't have anyone to go with for prom to night. I didn't know there was a prom night again.. it looks like they like their prom nights in the Sim world. Of course Robert took the hint and asked her to go with him, though her reply was a little strange... :P
"It might happen that I get abducted by aliens before the ball, and then it might happen that I won't come. I would like to go with you, but remember that this can happen at any time."
I'll interpret that as a maybe... This left Robert a little confused though...
".. aliens? What!? Now she's just trying to play games with me.. she was the one that brought it up in the first place. I had completely forgotten about prom night to be honest.. but I heard she said she would like to go, so she will probably want to go with me.... right? I don't know, but I guess I'll just have to... see what happens.. girls man, why are they always so strange?"
Robert kept an optismistc mind as Margrethe continued to ask him to slow dance, saying she needed practice.. "..practice? Practice for what?" he thought, but he accepted her invitations to dance, because he thought if he didn't she probably wouldn't want to go with him..
Oliva Ursine (she is Claire and Jareds daughter) and Mortimer Goth had entered the bowling alley while they were slow dancing, and during her bowling Olivia had noticed them dancing and wanted to have a word with Robert as well...
She was instantly captivated as she talked to him, and thought in herself that it would have been much better if he would slow dance with her instead of Margrethe.. Robert didn't know what to do. He couldn't ask Olivia as well, when he had already asked Margrethe.. He felt this was a little awkward and unpleasant, but he couldn't do anything but continue to slow dance with Margrethe..
"Please help me, I know you're watching...."
Sorry, I don't want to do that... I can't do that... He asked Margrethe first.. you'll probably find a prom date some other time... This isn't the first, and it probably won't be the last either..
"You don't understand...." Olivia sobbed as she was forced to watch them continue their slow dance before running off to get ready for prom night...
Robert: I think we'll have to go to my place soon... I think that's where the limo will arrive... you're still coming with me are you?
Margrethe: Well.. did you see any aliens?
Robert: No... so you're coming then?
Margrethe: I think the aliens might come if we're not leaving soon..
Robert: ....
Robert: You're weird, let's go...
While the young teenagers hurry out the door to Mosquite Cove where the limo supposedly (hopefully...) will arrive to transport them to the school ball, Ranveig is still at the gym working out, Tori has left the Reppe residence again to go home and Oliver Freddy has now taken over the tv watching while his girlfriend is practicing tricks on the ball in the background...
Chapter 20.7 – Sunset Valley – June 2023: I must be in love with an alien... part II
Margrethe and Robert had some time to kill watching tv while waiting for the limo to arrive. The narrator had some doubts of whether or not this would work, when they after a good hour of watching tv suddenly get up and put on their finest clothing and run out the door to go to the school ball...
They're looking quite nice, I must say, though the weather is not as it just started to hail.. so I hope the limo is nearby...
Turns out it isn't, because they run.. and they run.. and once they approach the school it looks like there is no limo waiting for them, and that they're going to run all the way.. Sounds like the prom is getting started in there already, because I can hear the bass from inside, but they keep runnin'.. and runnin', runnin', and runnin', runnin'....
Then I see the limo... it's parked between Lise Veronica and Kleopatras house... The limo driver must have completely misunderstood the directions...
"Well, there are so many similar last names around town.. it's no wonder I get confused.. You expect me to know the difference between the Motorsen household, the Motor-Notesen household and the Motor-Karlsen household? Give me a break..."
Yeah, I kinda do.... that's your job.. your ride may be as smooth as a limousine, but you're not excactly ahead of the curves... now shut up and drive!
Now imagine if they hadn't found the limo, or if there hadn't been one there at all.. then they might have been left to stand out in the hail instead.. one can only hope then that Margrethe would have been so kind to let Robert stand under her umbrella a little bit too...
Luckily it didn't go that way, and they all got the prom this time too, and even if the weather outside was a drab, inside the sun would probably be shining, so they could all shine together and have a good time. So now, everybody, let's get it started.. just don't get st... don't get stupid...
With her youngest son now on his first date and prom night Ranveig decided to go upstairs to relax in the sauna after her workout, from where she could enjoy a nice view of the surrounding trees and the backyard of the laundromat. :P
..and the prom night begin the pop ups again. And just like last time, when the same question was popped by Kristina to Lise Veronica, I just can't make myself say no, so now there is another teenage couple in town! :P
..and something tells me this night is going to go down excactly like last time, just with a different couple. Makes me wonder if a prom night could ever go wrong..? This is only my second one, so I wouldn't know...
Romance happened elsewhere to, as Inge shyly stole a kiss from Oliver Freddy, much to her mothers amusement.
It's saturday night and the kids aren't the only one that should enjoy a night out, so Ranveig invites her sister Monica out to eat at the Corsican Bistro while Oliver Freddy and Inge called for a taxi to take them to the Garage pub downtown for some pizza and drinks..
Meanwhile Robert Bråge was having a splendid time at the prom.. Chemistry is not just found at the bar when the mixologist is doing their thing.. :P But in general its always the same, one thing reacting to another with sometimes mixed results.. the results look good here, though.. :P
Oliver Freddy ordered the pizza, but well, sometimes it can be difficult to understand the concept of enjoying a meal together as he went to eat his piece by the bar at the concert venue in the basement..
Inge was left alone to eat her piece upstairs right next to Lisa Bunch that was finding some love for the night with Hank Goddard-Wan...
Monica thanked Ranveig for the invitiation, but said she would rather be home since her daughter was at the prom...There would be plenty of other opportunities for them to dine out, and when Ranveig got to think about it, she agreed..
"Monica has a point.. with our kids at the prom it's probably best to stay home waiting for them for when they come home, or in case something else should happen..."
Well, that's what she s.. thought, but by the time Robert Bråge came home from a successful night at the prom she was already in bed. A big meal after several hours of strength workout at the gym and a hot sauna bath would probably make anyone struggle to keep awake.. :P
Robert Bråge is a nice kid and followed his moms example shortly thereafter, and this leaves only Inge and Oliver Freddy still up enjoying their own little slow dance over at the pub.
Both of them had several thoughts about babies and children this night, and the scene looked as romantic as slow dancing at the local rock pub can be, which gave me hopes of a.. hmm.. happy ending.. :P
Oh, this time was certainly one for romance, because while they were still slow dancing I got a message that Amena had just been on a date with Marty Keaton! My initial thought is good news, but.. on second thought, should you be doing that, Amena? Marty is married to Justine, and Justine is a colleague of Amena in the police force.... hmm.....
This does remind me though that I should check up on Amena and George and how the building of their new house is going, however I think I'll save that for the next update since it's already getting a little late here.
Back at the pub I do think it looks like the night is going to end well when Inge asks Oliver Freddy to watch the stars, but then..
..Inge gets a seemingly random impulse and runs out the door and heads back home just like that...
The pub was far from closing, so this leaves me and Oliver Freddy both a little confused.. what was that? Did she suddenly get 'cold feet'? That was certainly an abrupt and unexpected ending to an otherwise perfect night..Oh well, not much left for Oliver Freddy to do now but head back home as well.. Women! Why are they so strange? Maybe she suddenly got afraid they would get abducted by aliens...
So umm.. yeah, good night. See you next time...
The prom gang:
Like last time when there was a prom, I'm gonna have the teenagers pose a little.
Margrethe and Robert Bråge before entering the prom.
The prom couples. Lise Veronica and Kristina to the left. Margrethe and Robert Bråge to the right.
The teenagers that haven't gotten a prom date so far. Left to right: Kleopatra, Bjørn-Yngve and Olivia.
Chapter 21.1 – Sprottenham – January 2023: For old times sake...?
Alright, well, now that half of the year has passed for the southern Sunset Valley people it's time to move north again to a more 'middle of the country' type of place, the small coastal community known as Sprottenham (which I took my username after, not the other way around!).
This also puts us back at the start of the new year and in the month of january, and as we zoom in on the town and towards the Chitrakaar family house, we pass by the White Peal Memorial Lighthouse as it stands steadfast shining it's light throuh the dark winter night and towards the black oceans, as it has done for a little over one and a half century now... Of course, it's interior have been modernized a few times since then, but the exterior still stands as it does when it was first built to replace the old lighthouse..
Now, inside the house Gaute is as always the first one to wake up to get ready for his job at the military base. The kitchen looks just like it does when they left it in a hurry to travel to Bewickton over christmas and new year to visit Leyas father Deepak who was in the hospital...
It's an absolute filthy mess, because there was no time to clean. Leya felt it was urgent since her fathers health was on the line, and they had to pack what they could and go fast... Gaute doesn't have much time to clean either, a quick breakfast meal is all he can do, before he has to run out the door and get to work..
The dining room is in a similar state as Leya comes downstairs with Orinder and Bodil sits to eat her breakfast before going to school. It smells pretty bad, so once Bodil is out the door Leya will have lots of cleaning to do...
While Leya is inside cleaning, some of the towns folk are heading to the park nearby to enjoy this fine day, such as the Dahl-Blankblomst family as seen here.
The parents are Daniel and Leni, and the toddlers are.. umm....
Now I have been a little forgetful here, but after checking up on it afterwards I found that Daniel was carrying their firstborn son called Torgeir, while Leni was having their last born Jonn in the stroller.
Solvej Rasmussen has entered the park too, to do her own rockin' thing.
Agathi Jiggens is out on a stroll with her son Ruben.
The day moves on and after lots of housework, Leya finally finds time to sit down and eat lunch...
Gaute is finished at work, and on the way home he decides to buy a new modern old fashioned stereo for the living room.
And as soon as he enters the door at home, he picks up the phone to call his long time childhood friend Selma Vaddelmyr to show off his new stereo..
Leya has gone to paint, and finished a painting called "The Flamingo Stork" at a value of 244 simoleons.
Time to bring out the guitar. Leya can be quite rockin' too.
Then Selma arrives and rings the doorbell, so it's time to turn on the stereo and get the dance moves going.
He goes out in the hallway to dance with her (for some reason not in the living room where the stereo is) just in time for Bodil to arrive home from school and find them there.
"Hi Gaute... why are you dancing with Selma? Where's mom?" Bodil didn't like what she saw. Gaute should be dancing with mom, not Selma. Was history going to repeat itself? She hoped not... Gaute had been such a good stepfather. Was he going to do like her dad did and ruin it all again?
"Oh, just for old times sake.. this is how we used to dance when we were young.. Mom's in the hobby room playing guitar."
"Ok... I'll go to mom and do my homework..."
---
While Bodil did her homework and Gaute was still dancing with Selma, Leya wanted to have Orinder finish the final stretch and learn how to walk. While she does so, eventually Selma and Gaute stop dancing to walk into the living room. Leyas teaching of Orinder ends in success, and they're both happy about that.. The world just got bigger for the little one, but the world may change in other ways, too...
Gaute has always been a party animal and fond of women, that's no secret, and maybe there is more to his history with Selma that goes a little beyond them just being old childhood friends...
"What are you doing!? You can't do this to me now..."
Leya was very tempted to walk straight up to Selma and shout at her, but kept her cool and retreated back to the hobby room to start another painting instead.. Bodil still hasn't seen what happened, and it would probably be better if they could stop doing whatever they're doing before she finds out..
After Bodil had finished her homework and played some more computer games with grandma (Laranya: age 70) on the computer she got for christmas, she wants to head to the festival park to do some ice skating.
Back at home in the living room Gaute hasn't excactly stopped his flirtatious behaviour. They had even been sitting down to watch the romance channel together for a while...
Bodil is still unaware of all this as she has turned to snowboarding, still enjoying her time in the park...
..and Leya practices her painting, ignoring it all for now...
Orinder had now crawled up on the couch to continue watching the romance channel that was still on. Just don't learn anything from the adults behaviour...
A long day at the park at left Bodil tired and it was time to go home, just in time for curfew to set in.
When Bodil came home to ask her mom for a good night story (she wasn't going to ask Gaute this time.. and why was Selma still here?) the adults had gathered out in the backyard to talk under the night sky as a faint northern light was seen in the distance...
Then suddenly there was a new baby in town. Frigg just gave birth to a little girl called Randi. Again I can't have been paying much attention, because I didn't know she was pregnant.. but hey, good news, the towns population grew again. The girl standing in front of her is her teenage daughter Hermine.*
This is Odin, the (all-)father. :P
* Obviously this family is based on norse mythology, however I have allowed myself to deviate a little bit. If I were to stick true to it, Hermine would have been male and called Hermod, but I made her female to have a gender balance, because in the mythology Frigg and Odin have only male sons. I'm not trying to be blasphemous to the old gods.
Back at the Chitrakaar-Bråheim household Gaute rushes inside to go to bed, since he has been up since early morning.. Selma has found a dirty plate and goes to clean it in her own way...
Leya reads Bodil a bedtime story about a young girl called Bella who went missing, and Bodil has once again chosen to go to sleep in the guest bed instead of the bed in her own bedroom...
Downstairs Selma might just be trying to weasel her way into the family, as she has picked up Orinder to sit on her lap..
When Leya comes back downstairs, Selma has to be careful, so she puts Orinder back down so Leya can pick him up and put him in his crib...
It's bedtime now for this household, so you have to leave..
"Goodbye and goodnight Selma..."
"....oh, and by the way.... don't come back... I don't need your 'help' with the dishes..."
Goodnight.
Other happenings:
Anne-Gerd Jørgensen, whom I thought would remain single for life has finally found love in one of the towns vehicle enthusiasts.. a fast and furious rubber burning 'frenchman' called Leon Maneval. He would certainly know how to handle the curves and take her for a ride, I'm sure... Kids.. look away! (..and don't cross the street...)
Like the title suggests, this update is not going to be filled to the brim with happenings, but I'm still putting it down here for the history books... :P
Chapter 21.1 – Sprottenham – February 2023: (Almost) no news is good news...?
The shortest month of the year went by relatively fast and without any real major events..
Bodil woke up this morning and was excited about cooking recipes..
Leya and Gaute both had to sleep in this morning, so there was noone there to tell her to eat breakfast before going to school. Instead she played queen for a while by the dining table until the school bus honked and it was time to go. The mailman was angry this morning as Leya and Gaute was late with paying their bills again...
Bodil greets her friend Samira Klinemann before entering the school building.
Gaute feels a little guilty about his flirting with Selma last month and decides to lay low with that for a while, hoping to forget about it.. He still wants to kiss Selma for a while, but the wish fades eventually..
Leya wakes up to practice her drawing skills and feed Orinder.
Bodil isn't to interested in the hospital she got for a christmas gift..
"The hospital was a really stupid gift. I'm almost twelve! I stopped playing with dolls a long time ago! Grandpa probably meant it well when he bought the hospital doll house, but it was a really lame gift... Doll houses are for toddlers and small kids!"
..but atleast Orinder still finds it interesting.
Gaute has found another use for the stereo, so instead of inviting Selma over once more, he distracts himself with working out, which he pretty much does for the rest of the day..
Leya decides to begin potty training for Orinder. Now that he has learnt how to walk, it would be pretty nice to relieve him off the diapers.. not to mention, to relieve the parents of having to constantly change them!
Today was excursion day at the theatre for Bodil and her class, and she leaves it just before Leya enters it to go to work.
However, they don't pass each other on the way.
When Bodil comes home from school, she wants to hang out with her friend Edny, but Edny is busy at her after school activity.. so she goes into moms hobby room to do homework again..
Baturney Flansbarne, the husband of Agathi Jiggens, just got promoted and is now a part of the town council. He went over to the Harbor café after work to celebrate it by eating cake.
His wife was on her usual daily stroll with Ruben in the park. Also in the park is police officer Jingguo Xie-Luo with one of his twins Hung Jian (if I'm not mistaken, I mean, they're twins.. :P)
It looked like spring came early to the town as Selma had gone to entertain a few people at the Harbor Park.
Her husband Christoffer was seen a little further away accompanying her on the drums. :P
Bodil went to visit her friend Edny after she had finished her afte school activity, but when she came there they had left and nobody was home.. but atleast she got a nice bike ride back and forth across town in the february sunset...
It happened from time to time that the Sævik family wasn't at home, as they would as often as they could afford it travel down to Sunset Valley to visit Ednys mom in prison...
When Bodil came back home again, she wanted to hear a good night story. Somehow she is still not to old for that. Since mom was at work, there was noone else to ask but Gaute. He hadn't flirted with Selma this month, so maybe he wasn't so bad (even though he was smelly from having worked out all day..)
This time Bodil chooses to have the bedtime story read for her in Leya and Gautes bed, before she goes to sleep in her own bed for a change.
When Leya gets home from work, she immediately puts Orinder in his crib before going to sleep, but Gaute picks him up again, because she forgot to feed him.. :P
"I can't believe she could be this unattentive, but don't worry little man, daddy is gonna feed you..."
So yeah, he takes him downstairs and makes sure he gets fed, before he takes him back up to the crib and goes to bed..
...and that was pretty much it, that was what happened on this most ordinary month of months. Good night.
Bonus image:
Even if Edny wasn't at home, Bodils bike trip across town also gave a nice view of the light house and the moon as it rose up to light the sea (in case the light house would be out and not do it's job...)
Chapter 21.3 – Sprottenham – March 2023: The grass is always greener..
Spring hadn't arrived fully yet, as snow began to fall the night when february turned to march. The calendar also says that next month will be another birthday celebration, a double celebration even, as there are a couple of twins who will enter a new stage of their life...
Because of this, we will leave Cliffon Street behind and move across to the more rural part of town and this house by the end of Southfield Road. It's the old Frumpenheimer house (most houses in town are pretty old...) where the Rasmussen/Jensen family lives.
The parents Solvej Rasmussen and Patrik C. Jensen haven't gotten much sleep for the past 11 months or so, as their two twin daughters Lillian and Silvia have done their best to keep them awake at various times of the day...
It's not always that amusing, perhaps especially for Patrik, who isn't the most family oriented guy.
Though the parents may be tired and a little grumpy, the son of the house Rune wakes up with a good mood this morning.
It is indeed a beautiful morning as the sun rises in the east to shine it's first warming rays over the town as a sign that spring is getting a little closer eventually...
Rune grabs a simple juice for breakfast before heading to school, while Solvej prepares waffles for herself and Patrik (who is still asleep in their bedroom downstairs). Solvej and Patrik doesn't have to leave anywhere just yet, as Solvej works as a gardener now, her job is in her greenhouse right next to her home. Patrik is the captain of the local football team, the Sprottenham Totspurs, and so his job doesn't start until the afternoon.
Patrik and Solvej have been a couple for quite some years now and have so far proved everyone in town wrong when they said their relationship wouldn't last very long, because, well.. Patrik wasn't excactly known to be faithful... So as she stands there with something in the oven, she starts to think that maybe it's time they took the final step and actually got married...
When Rune enters the school I see Edny Sævik just about to walk in through the doors. She is Bodils friend whom she never got to visit yesterday because they were away. Looks like they are back again now from their visit down south..
Lacuna Coil - Enjoy the silence (Depeche Mode Cover)
This is inmate #256 Oda Sævik. She is serving an 8 year sentence for being an accomplice in money laundering, kidnapping and human trafficking. She is also Ednys mother...
Prison life isn't all that. The walls are grey like concrete, the days are long and there isn't much to do but play chess and spend your time thinking. Prison allows for plenty of time to think and reflect... sometimes perhaps a little to much..
Then there's always the odd inmate that tries to weird everyone out..
..but most of all, prison is a very lonely and isolated experience.. when you're far away from your family and loved ones, and some days all you want to do is sleep...
Holidays are the worst... This is how Oda spent her christmas eve...
Location: Sunset Valley Prison, Family Visiting Room, February 2023
..but every now and then, if Oda has behaved nicely, she is allowed to have a visit from her family. That's something to look forward to, something to keep her.. going...
Young baby Gøran probably doesn't understand to much of what's going on.. Toddler Kolbjørn knows his mom has done something really bad and has gone to a place far away.. Edny understands a lot more... and is very excited to meet her mom again when she hears her voice.. look behind you! It's mom!
"Oh mom... I missed you so much..."
Words like violence
Break the silence
Come crashing in
Into my little world
Painful to me
Pierce right through me
Can't you understand
Oh, my little girl
All I ever wanted
All I ever needed
Is here
In my arms
Words are very
Unnecessary
They can only do harm
Time is short when you have to catch up with several months of "what happened in school", and Edny has plenty of stories to tell.. about everything she has learned, all the homework she has to do, and how she is best friends with Bodil... She doesn't want to tell mom though about how the other kids sometimes haze her for having a mom in prison.. Oda knows not everything is as great as Edny says, because she has talked with her husband Vetle on the phone a few times about it already, and how he has been in meetings with the school administration about it, and how they have "promised to deal with it", because of course they have a "zero tolerance for bullying at their school", but so far not much has happened....
The middle child Kolbjørn gets some attention too. In three years time he will be old enough to have his first day at school, a moment she is very likely to miss out on... but for now, "Here comes the claw!"
...and then there's the youngest one, Gøran. To him for a long time, mom will be a far away figure living half way across the country.. and she will probably miss out on his first day of school, too.. Eight years doesn't look like much on paper maybe, but it's a long time when you have a family...
It's heartbreaking, so Oda has to spend the time she gets to be visited by her family wisely and effectively..
These are the moments she gets with her family... she better saviour them, because...
..afterwards it will be back to the grey stone walls again, weird inmates, the same daily routine of getting up at the same time, being served breakfast, chess, workout, dinner, lights out, go to sleep for another day...
Parental skills are still intact.. and soon the family has to go back to the hotel they're staying at, and Oda has to go back to her cell, but first...
..Edny wanted to hear a good night story from mom. Nobody tells a good night story like mom.. and yes, the visiting area has a bed. Not because people are allowed to sleep over, because they're not... that bed is there for other.. reasons.. though, since Oda got visited by both her husband and her kids, using it for the.. intended purpose in the time she got with them, wasn't necessarily a priority.. That's prison life... Enjoy the silence..
..now, back to reality outside...
After finishing her breakfast, Solvej wants to read a book about gardening, so she gets into her purple car to head to the library. She also wants to find a seed and harvest a wild plant, but winter time isn't the best time of year to look for seeds on the ground or harvest plants, so a quiet day at the library will have to do.
Anne-Gerd Jørgensen and Leya Chitrakaar-Bråheim are also seen at the library doing some slightly lighter reading purely for entertainment reasons. :P
Patrik then gets a change of mind regarding his career, so he calls a baby sitter for the twins before he heads to the police station to start a new career fighting crime (or maybe it's because he just likes women in uniforms, I don't know. :P ) Patriks new boss is Glenn Hoddelås, Bodils father.
He must have a good eyesight, which could probably come in handy also for his new career, as he somehow manages to spot a lizard in the snow outside. At the same time he is passed by Agathi Jiggens on the sidewalk on her daily stroll with Ruben.. she's probably heading to the park again for the third time in a row now.
Patrik hasn't given up on sports completely though, as the next thing he does is to head to the gym hoping to find someone who might be interested in having him as their personal trainer...
"Hmm, there are a couple of guys standing over there, maybe one of them will do.."
The guys are Edgar Kyllingstad, an already acquaintance of him and Agnar Bergersen, a chef at the local seafood restaurant and certified hater of art. :P
Since Edgar is already there in his sports outfit, Patrik thinks he would probably be the most interested in a good workout. Besides, he doesn't really know Agnar all that well, so asking Edgar is probably the best choice.
Edgar is more than happy to be coached by the now former captain of the local football team and Patrik is more than happy to be his coach, so the interest is mutual. Agnar probably wouldn't have been to interested as he has to run off to go to work...
Edgar was doing pretty well on the treadmill, so after a while Patrik decides to get a solid workout for himself too. :P
Outside the school Rune leaves with his friend Tatiana Maria Vanderfjert to go home to her place. Tatiana Maria is the daughter of Gabriela (nee Bedoya) and Ramger Vanderfjert, both colleagues of Leya. Ramger is, like Patrik now, a former football player of the local football team, before he switched careers to music.
At the library Solvejs reading has paid off, and she is now at level 8 in the gardening skill. She also feels the effects of lack of sleep and decides to put the book down to go home and get some rest...
Roberts new boss is of course an excellent police officer, as he even on the way home from work decided to stop by the Klinemann household to do some investigation and uh.. acquire some stolen goods after a visit to their bathroom... well, those goods are certainly stolen now! The Supersalg-Simen ("The supersale Sim") is one of the cheaper toilet types (Bargain John in english).
Rune was doing homework with Tatiana Maria in their kitchen, but wasn't to happy about it... "School sucks.. Not only do we have to sit still inside school all day, but afterwards when we get home we even have to do homework! That shouldn't be allowed! We should force adults to do homework too..."
Solvej didn't get much of her needed rest when she came home, because the baby sitter had done a pretty terrible job with the twins.. If she could have, she would have given him the boot, but of course, he was much to quick to run out the door after she paid him and by the time she noticed what a lazy bum he had been, it was to late...
"Hey... will join me in skipping school tomorrow?" Rune still wasn't very happy about school...
"No..." Tatiana said... "I kind of like school, you know.. and I don't want to get in trouble with mom and dad. Don't you?"
"Nah, I think it'll be alright. Mom didn't go to school when she was a kid."
"What?" Tatiana was surprised. "Why not? How could your mom not go to school?"
"Mom was taught at home by her parents" Rune explained. "That's how they used to do it where mom is from."
"That's weird..." Tatiana said. "Parents aren't meant to be teachers, that's the teachers job."
If Solvej had raised Rune all on her own, she might have chosen to do homeschooling for him, to better instill in him the correct values of taking care of nature and spreading love and peace to the world.. however, Patrik also had a say in this, and he was of a different opinion, so she had accepted to have Rune enrolled in school for now. Also, with taking care of the twins lately there wouldn't have been much time or energy left to make sure Rune learnt what he needed to anyway...
After the kids have finished their homework, Tatiana sits down in the living room to watch tv, while Rune walks upstairs to check under her bed to see if there are monsters...
"Hmm.. oh, yikes!" .. and there were! He suspected there were, when he heard them hissing and breathing as soon as he opened the door to her bedroom, but he didn't think they would be this terrifying! With red glowing eyes and skin like rotting meat!
He thought he could almost smell them from underneath the bed (or maybe all this means that it just hasn't been cleaned there for a while.. so remember to always clean under your bed to prevent monsters from growing! :P )
"That certainly isn't a good place to sleep...." he thought after he had ran out of the room and heard footsteps behind him.. but the footsteps weren't anything dangerous. It was Tatianas mom Gabriela that had just come home from her job at the theatre and wanted to tell him a funny story about a guy at work that brushed his teeth so much he almost had no teeth left!
That was of course the funniest thing Rune has ever heard.
The mental image he got of a man sitting at his workdesk without a single tooth in his mouth was to much to handle... :P
Gabriela was funny and nice, he though, so he wanted her to read him a bedtime story.. in their bedroom, not Tatianas bedroom, because of the monsters...
Gabriela then wanted to play a goodnight lullaby for him, but that was a little to much...
At the gym Patrik had finished his workout and was approached by a paparazzi that wanted to dance with him. Of course, Patrik didn't decline.
Solvej was near the brink of exhaustion at home, as she was doing her best to get naps and take care of the babies...
Tatianas father Ramger was home as well, and was reading Tatiana a bedtime story.
Rune had decided to brave it and ask Gabriela for another bedtime story, this time in Tatianas bed..
They must not like sleep in this household though, because after finishing the bedtime story Ramger did excactly the same thing as his wife and started playing the guitar for Tatiana.
It was way past curfew for Rune, and if he were to get any sleep he couldn't stay there so he had to hop on his bike and get back home..
"I hope mom and dad won't be mad at me for getting home this late..."
Well, he was lucky there. Patrik hadn't even noticed he was out as he went straight to bed after returning from the gym and Solvej was much to exhausted from taking care of the twins and was out like a light when she finally could go to sleep..
So it was no problem for Rune to sneak inside the house to his room and go to bed....
Chapter 21.4 – Sprottenham April 2023: Double birthday party.
"The Frumpenheimer House" by night, peaceful and quiet on the outside...
It's another month in the Jensen /Rasmussen household and the parents once more wake up in the middle of the night to the high pitched voice of one of their infants..
Patrik seizes the moment to have a very early breakfast (or a late night meal depending on how you view it), leaving Solvej downstairs to take care of the babies.. Solvej is not very amused.
They only a get a few short moments of sleep before it's up again to start the new day..
Having babies is a 24/7 job.. the always flirtatious Patrik still manages to keep a good mood between the parents, though..
The twins birthday (Lillian and Silvia) falls on a saturday this year, so everyone will have the day off, except Solvej that doesn't have any fixed work hours. Solvej job is in the greenhouse, and the plants in there are in great need of some attention to pull weeds and harvest their growth...
It's a good thing then, that Solvej has such a green thumb.
Now, Patrik likes green things too, however his kind is the one usually played sports on, as he decided to spend his time off watching the lates game of Simmerican foot-to-handball on tv.
Rune spent his morning sleeping in after staying up late over at Tatiana Marias house and didn't notice his father was up until after he finished his breakfast and cleaned up.. "Morning, dad.."
Solvej had delegated the task of inviting guests and fixing the cakes to the birthday party to Patrik. Since he kept evading caring for the twins, he had to do something.. Solvej wasn't any less tired than he was...
Guests begin arriving shortly after the invitation was sent out (as do the rain..), and the first guests to show up are Leo Xie-Luo and Elisa Meek. Most of the guests invited were kids that are friends of Rune. Leo is the oldest son of Jingguo and Dongmei and Elisa is an orphan living at the orphanage ran by the Westgård family (they have practically adopted these kids and made them their family).
They're quickly followed by Karoline Gundersen and Samira Klinemann. Karoline is married to Kabelo Gundersen (birth name Kabelo Okalake, so he took her last name after marriage). They have one son together, Alexander Gundersen. Samira is the daughter of Chansa Klinemann (nee Beadoux) and Jørgen Klinemann.
Right behind them came Selma Vaddelmyr greeting Karoline with her best smile, but Karoline wasn't necessarily smiling in return..
Someone else that wasn't smiling was Edny Sævik, the oldest child of the Sævik household. Her parents are Vetle Sævik and Oda Sævik, the latter unfortunately being in prison, so Edny sometimes has to take on the role of being the 'mother' of the household to help her father with caring for her two younger brothers....
Selmas daughter Jorunn was the next guest, greeting her mom as she arrived because it took a while for everyone to sort out who should enter first through the front door.. :P
Leya was the second to last guest I caught arriving, not holding any grudges against Selma for what happened a couple of months ago.
The last guest was Lars Erik Fikdsal, another kid that had recently been adopted by the Westgård family.
Tatiana Maria had somehow managed to sneak inside the house without anyone noticing. A future international super spy there, perhaps. :P
Solvej and Patriks living room is right up the stairs from the front door, but for some people its more natural to take the first door to the left and walk straight into their bedroom instead... It was quite crowded when Solvej went in there to pick up Lillian to celebrate her birthday.. Karoline had started an argument with Selma, and Leya was with Samiras father, Jørgen..
"If Gaute can flirth with others, then so can I...."
"...or maybe I shouldn't have done that. I better leave this party before somebody finds out..."
Then the main event could begin, and Lillian was the first one to be celebrated. Though the guests didn't seem to care much. It was only her brother Rune and her father Patrik that actually cheered for her. Everyone else were more concerned with their own business.. but anyway, happy first birthday to you, Lillian.
Welcome to toddlerhood. You'll probably get a little better dressed later. :P
Then it's time for the second twin Silvia to have her celebration. Elisa and Samira had left in between here, and just like with Lillian it was only her father and her brother that actually cared enough to celebrate. I guess people on this day just wasn't in a mood for partying. :P
Happy birthday, young one.
Those red hair genes must be pretty strong, as all three kids that Solvej have given birth to have gotten the same hair colour.
----
Yeah, people weren't to interested in partying at all, because by the time they sat down to eat the cakes even more people had left, and upstairs now it was really only Bodil that remained of all the guests...
The toddlers had located each their toy. Silvia with the doll house and Lillian with the peg toy box in the background.
Patrik didn't mind all the guests leaving so soon as he was still very tired, and so he suggested to Patrik (so that Bodil would hear it), that it was probably bedtime soon...
Oh, but the party had yet another guest, because I heard some laughter from outside.. I suspect that Gaute had spent most of his time there playing with the sprinklers in Solvejs greenhouse...
Gaute is very fond of children for a man that doesn't have the family oriented personality trait, as he rushes inside to cuddle with Lillian.
Solvej thinks it's bedtime and wants to put Silvia to bed, but Gaute was already there as well...
"Gaute.. please put down my child, so I can put her in her crib.. It's getting late and we all need our sleep..."
..but Gaute wasn't really listening, so Solvej had to pick up Lillian first.. :P
News ticker: Danica Tomren, "The girl from the Harbour Café", has now found a boyfriend in Lothar Marier, another one of the towns vehicle enthusiasts. He is the clever mechanic and engineer behind the local racers custom built cars.
Lothar Maier driving in a rusty old car that he sometimes drives in because it draws a lot less attention compared to his favorite ride...
Back in Solvej and Patriks house it's bedtime for Lillian and Gaute and Bodil take the hint and head back home to their own house by Cliffon Park.
"Thanks for the invitation, we had fun."
The buffet table in the background was Patriks idea, however since both he and Solvej was pretty tired the entire time and all the guests left pretty quickly, there wasn't really an opportunity to make use of it.. so into the storage it goes, hopefully to be used some other time.
Bedtime for Silvia too.. nighty night, sweetheart.
Finally then, the parents could make an attempt at getting some well deserved rest once more..
Rune didn't feel like going to bed just yet though, because, well.. there were monsters under the bed again...
Pretending to be a king is much better... "I commandeth thee, monsters of the underworld.. yield! Yield and return to the dark depths from whence thou cameth!"
The peace of the adults and toddlers bedroom didn't last very long, because Silvia needed to be fed..
Of course, that job was left to Solvej as all Patrik did was shout and curse and go back to sleep...
Eat and be merry.. Silvias first meal all on her own.
What comes in, has to come out.. with a smell that makes its way through every pore and is potentially lethal... :P
Downstairs Rune has successfully banished the monsters back to their lair so he can go to bed, and Solvej has put Silvia in her crib for the second time, and everyone can now finally asleep..
There is a hint of foul l***uage in this update and I'll admit that I changed the title from the one that first sprung to mind as it was a joke that was considered just a little bit to crude... I don't want to upset the prudes.
Chapter 21.5 – Sprottenham May 2023: The botanists joke...
Solvej and Patrik learns that just because their babies got older and became toddlers, things aren't really all that different yet.. They still require their parents attention to be fed... Immediately. Now. It doesn't matter then if it's in the middle of the night and mom and dad are terribly deprived of sleep...
Lillian is in need of both a diaper change and food.. and as usual, Patrik does nothing and leaves it all to Solvej..
Lillian learns to eat. :P I like these close up shots to show their faces.
Silvia works on a completely different schedual than her sister, she didn't even fall asleep, so Solvej might as well just take her out of her crib and play with her. Solvej suspects she's not going to get much rest this month either..
Solvej had to go back upstairs to look after Lillian, and there's no help in Patrik because he is still asleep, so... Silvia was then left on her own to do some exploring. Looks like she found herself a new toy...
Cleaning is not the top priority right now.. Solvej instead wants to prioritize teaching the toddlers necessary skills as fast as possible, and she begins with most rewarding task, to teach Lillian to talk.. and the first word she teaches her is matchstick.. "They used to call me that when I was a kid" Solvej recalls, "..and I never really liked it. 'There comes matchstick Solvej' they used to say, because I was always tall and thin with freckles and red hair... I want to prepare my girls for what is probably to come, and I think the earlier I start, the better... Being a 'matchstick' is not a bad thing.. Don't play with fire, I'm just saying..."
When Patrik wakes up, he's just more concerned with whatever he wants to do, and goes to work out..
..until Solvej gets to tired and goes to shut off the tv to nap on the couch. "You watch after the kids for a while, I need to rest..."
Unfortunately Solvejs rest was cut short when Lillian started to practice on the xylophone right next to the couch...
Finally Silvia got tired. She had seen what mama did and wanted to copy her example. :P
With the toddlers now upstairs (and Silvia napping) Solvej managed to squeeze in another small nap on their bed downstairs.. Also, since she thought she was pregnant a couple of months ago ("when she had 'something in the oven'...), and since she now has three kids with Patrik, she thought it was time they got married and became a proper family. Now about the pregnancy, she did take a couple of pregnancy tests to make sure. The first one was negative and.. the second one was too. So with somewhat mixed feelings she had to conclude that she wasn't pregnant.. a sigh of relief from not having to raise even more babies and toddlers, and a bit of disappointment that another new life wasn't growing inside of her...
She still hadn't given up the idea of getting married and did her best to find time to set Patrik in the mood to ask the question..
However, he was being a little difficult as if he didn't want her to get to close, almost literally as he kept rejecting her attempts to give him a good romantic hug.. She had tried a few times earlier to discuss the topic of marriage with him, but he had always appeared a little uncomfortable every time she brought it up. She knew everything about his reputation and his past, and how people had warned her not to settle with this man, but.. he was what she fell for, how could she not? The always idealistic and younger Solvej thought she could be the one to make it work... but now he was the father of her children, and she wanted to seal it properly.. If only he could stop being so evasive.. She had to keep trying...
Upstairs Lillian and Silvia were being cute next to Lillians new favorite toy, the xylophone.
Patrik did show the occasional sign of being a family man as he made sure Silvia was being fed and cheered enthusiastically for Lillians xylophone practice. A glimmer of hope for Solvej..
It warmed Patriks heart when his boy Rune woke up to talk about physical exercize with him, apart from women (in plural...), sports and physical activity is Patriks main interest in life..
..but even so, it's hard to not love your own kids, even if you may not have planned to have them.. you were only there to enjoy 'the pleasures of the flesh' and then one thing led to another, and here you are... He had just been out shopping to buy a new teddy bear for Silvia before putting her to bed when she finally got tired enough to fall asleep..
Rune wanted to hangout with Elisa Meek from the twins birthday party, so he hopped on his bike to go to her house to see if she was home.
Solvej had yet again gone to nap on the bed in their bedroom and Patrik was now left alone upstairs with Lillian.. and then it must have finally snapped for him, because he went directly to the doll house and, well, smashed it...
"I'm so ******* sick and tired of this ******* dollhouse and being kept awake all the ******* time!...." he began before he continued into a pretty lengthy tirade of a highly unrepeatable nature.. the part I just shared with you is innocent like a toddler in comparison... if Solvej had been there to hear that she would no doubt consider a change of heart... It's probably for the better right now that Lillian has not yet learned to talk, and let's just hope she won't pick up on any of what he just said.....
When Rune came to Elisas house she had just left to go to the Harbour Square just across the street. He was just about to leave and go back home when he saw her and called for her to stop and wait for him.
She was heading for the Harbour Café with Danica who had adopted her after the.. incident.. last autumn when they were all freed from being held captive and their captors were sentenced to prison... Danica would often go to the Harbour Café to eat, it was part of her therapy program as suggested by her psychologist. Repeated exposure to combat the fear and unpleasant memories.. To make the Harbour Café and the surrounding area feel like the warm and pleasant place it was supposed to be..
The Café was very crowded with people waiting to buy their lunch, however the baristas were nowhere to be found. People were getting pretty impatient, and it got worse when a toddler let everyone know just how hungry it was...
Elisa was hungry too, and had looked forward to eating there, but as it couldn't be done Rune suggested they head over to the local seafood restaurant instead.. He hoped the restaurant should be a little calmer too..
He had to let Danica know before he could take here there as she was Elisas guardian and caretaker..
"I'm so hungry I could eat a whale..."
As Rune and Elisa entered the restaurant Fragen Froosh, one of the town elders exited to complain about the food and the service..
..but this is typical of Fragen, she was never really satisfied with anything. A retired teacher of the old school kind, she had always been firm in her belief that world had always been greatly lacking in order and discipline and if it had been up to her, teachers would still have been allowed to give their pupils a smack across the fingers with the pointing stick whenever they refused to sit still and pay attention..
Back home Solvej and Patrik had switched positions with Patrik now napping on the bed and Solvej taking care of the kids...
Rune and Elisa had both ordered a meal of sushi and they sat down to eat at the same table.
One of the current teachers at the school and the wife of Robert, the criminal mastermind behind the aforementioned incident nobody in town likes to talk to loudly about, Sandra Gudmestad-Kiinsmo has discovered a squirrel probably hanging around the restaurant to pick up food dropped on the ground by the guests..
She finds the squirrel cute and amusing, but Fragen.. does not.. "Squirrels are akin to rats pretty much" she snarls.. "Vermin and pests, that's all they are. That's all everything is.. just a pain in the... " Well, I think we just found the location of the aforementioned pointing stick... I guess she had to put it somewhere, when she could no longer use it to torment her pupils... What a cantankerous old fossil!
Well, things have modernized quite a lot since Fragen last tought anyone at school. Nowadays every pupil are given each their computer to do school work on by the state. Fragen would no doubt hate that.. There's no teaching like the old way, with chalk and a blackboard...
Here's the main reason why Rune wanted to hangout with Elisa, to hand her a gift. So far only to make friends, but he is just a little less than a year away from turning 13 and should soon begin to find more interest in romance.. just hope he won't end up like his father, but who knows.. :P
Elisa was super happy to receive a collection of festival tickets in a box. Not the most amazing gift in the world, but it was what he had, and as long as the gift worked, it's all good.
They're still just kids though, and for the rest of the night they run around the restaurant area playing tag with each other and having great fun. Great fun.. Fragens most hated word, so.. it was good for them that she had left to go home, or she probably would have waved her cane at them and threatened to give them a whooping with it... and they would have ran in circles around her, making her even more sour than ever before!
The kids played around in the restaurant area until it started to rain and Elisa immediately decided it was time to head home. Not much reason there for Rune to hang around and it was already past curfew again, so he better head home too and hope mom doesn't notice.. again..
It was bedtime now. Patrik and Silvia were already asleep downstairs, and now it was Lillians turn. Solvej had of course noticed the broken doll house and wondered what happened..
Lillian had seemed upset as she babbled and pointed at it, so Solvej knew something had happened, but didn't know what it was. "Don't worry my little girl, I will have a look at it and see if I can fix it tomorrrow, but now it's time for bed..."
Just as Solvej came downstairs Rune came in through the door. "Oh.. hi mom, I have just been over at Elisas house and we forgot about time. I had told dad where I was, and Danica was there with us the whole time, so..."
"It's still to late and you should have been home an hour ago" Solvej interrupted him. "It's ok for now, but don't let it happen again. Now, go to bed."
Solvej usually wasn't this strict, but she was exhausted and feeling a little irritable too, so Rune didn't dare to do much but obey and go to bed..
And finally everyone was asleep at the same time, parents, child and toddlers alike and hopefully for once they could all get a good nights sleep without interruptions..
Chapter 21.6 Sprottenham: June 2023 - Hello! You fool, I love you...
..and a good nights sleep it was. Solvej had the most vivid dreams of her marriage. The sun coloured everything in a bright orange hue and seagulls were heard in the distance accomponied by the soothing sound of the ocean waves as they slowly rolled in to embrace the shoreline.... The sea breeze was mild, soft and gentle, just like the touch of his hand on her face.. and everything was perfect.
It was such a rush, it was the best high she had ever felt when they exchanged rings and their lips found each other and left everything else behind. She wasn't just floating, she was flying, leaving the grass and the cobblestone behind on her way up...
If she had opened her eyes, she would have seen the park, the harbour, the old fishing vessels passing the lighthouse on the way out and the town below her becoming smaller.. as she rose up past another couple in a wonderful hot air balloon saying they were heading for a club on the moon... past the clouds, leaving the atmosphere, the earth, and even the sun and the moon behind to a place where it was only them and them alone and they became one in a moment that felt like it should last forever... and she could hear the crowd cheer in the distance somewhere down there and all around them.. a cheer that gradually became more high pitched in voice, almost to the point of sounding like a baby crying...
That's when reality set in, and it was time to wake up...
"Whose turn is it this time?"
"I'll take her, you go back to sleep..."
Silvia had not adjusted her sleep schedual to the rest of the family, so this became a very early morning for Patrik. Since his young girl was having breakfast at this hour, he figured he might just do the same since he was already up...
This also gave him plenty of time before going to work at the police station to do some much needed cleaning up around the house as laundry had piled up here and there to become tiny mountains of dirty, smelly clothes..
When the actual morning came Rune woke up to open his Chest of Wonders, and in it he found a time portal that would transport him some million years back in time before sims existed and the Simtopian planet were habitated by reptiles much larger and more dangerous than the ones seen today...
Being a dinosaur for a while is cool, but like the poster in the school hallway says "The dinosaurs didn't read. Look what happened to them..", so when the school bus honks the costume goes back into the chest and out the door he goes.
Lillian woke up just as he found his seat, and sleep time for Solvej was now over..
"Oh my sweetheart, mommy is coming soon, it will be ok.." Solvej yawned on her way over to Lillians crib..
..before changing her diaper and taking her upstairs to place her on the floor next to the broken doll house.. "My little girl.. I wish you could tell me what happened to the doll house, but don't worry.. mommy will fix it..."
It takes her a couple of hours to fix it, and she really can't believe the toddlers would be able to do this all on their own... Rune was out of the house hanging out with his friend Elisa, so it couldn't have been him.. could Patrik have done it? It had been quite stressful for them since the twins were born and she knew that he could sometimes have a bit of a short fuse, so... but she pushed the thought aside, because on his good days he could be really sweet.... and of course, there was always his muscular body.. just curling up next to him in bed and have him put his strong arm around her.. no, it was probably just an accident and he probably didn't mean it...
She had already been at the jewelry store and bought the rings for both of them, and was going to ask the question when he came home from work...
"Let this be a secret between you and me for now, but I'm going to ask your daddy to marry me..."
Patrik pretty much had no idea what Solvej had in mind as he came home from work to pay the bills as usual.. Marriage was not something he had considered, the thought hadn't even crossed his mind.. but women, they're kryptonite to him, and Solvej was one of a kind. There was a wilderness to her that he hadn't found in any other woman. Of couse, there hadn't been to much of that for the past year as their babies had been very demanding and turning their bedroom into a no-go zone for that kind of thing... but there was always the shower, the kitchen counter or when she was feeling really risky, even the greenhouse... Solvej was not afraid to get dirty in more ways than one, and he loved every piece of it.
..and she knew it. If she wanted him to say yes, she had to surprise him and do what she did best..
..just in time for Rune to come home from school. When he saw his parents kissing like that, he knew it was time to leave them alone for a while..
"Hi mom, hi dad.. I'll be inside doing my homework...".. but just like Patrik, Rune didn't know what his mom had in store..
"What, Solvej...? What are you...? Not here, not now.. that's much to risky!" Not even Patrik was willing to take it to that level...
"You fool! But look.. I got something..."
"...Patrik.... will you marry me?"
"Yes!" Patrik knew that Solvej was a keeper, or he would have left a long time ago.. so he didn't really need to think to hard to give his answer. It takes a special kind of woman to capture a man whose wish in life is to break hearts, and Solvej was just that kind.... atleast for him she was. A match made in... Nirvana. Or right there on the grass, or usually just.. wherever they were. She was his match.. his matchstick, and no doubt could she light a fire...
Now in his former football career Patrik had gotten used to collecting trophies, but none were as shiny right now as this one ring on his finger.. He still wasn't sure if this was actually happening.. Did she just ask? Was it really him that told her "yes" or was he being someone else?
No, he was still there, and reality was still real as they launched into a long hug they wished could last for much longer than it did.. or just take it to the greenhouse to.. umm, water the roses, but..
..well, maybe later, because or now they had to care for their toddlers again..
The always musical Solvej thinks this day deserves a song, so she gets out her guitar to play a tune to her toddlers and Patriks great amusement.
Oh, happy day..
..and for some strange reason Patrik gets an urge to go the bathroom to check his appearance..
However, as he got up so early this morning, it's now bedtime for him.. and Solvej decides it's bedtime for the toddlers too as she puts them both in their cribs..
Then she gets the thought to go to the grocery store to sell of some of her harvest, but the store was closed and wasn't taking in goods at this hour. Come back a little earlier tomorrow, the store clerk told her, so she had to leave back home again, empty handed in terms of cash, but with her vegetables still in her possesions.. The rings she bought weren't cheap, so whatever money she could get now, would be very handy..
Then just as she was about to put her head on the pillow, her phone rang.. It was Christoffer Vaddelmyr, Selmas spouse, calling.. He wanted to know if they could hang out..
"...what? At this hour..? No.. if you really just want to hang out, how about you call me a little earlier in the day?"
"Oh yeah.. sure.. If you say so... ok, bye...."
"Give me a break.." Solvej thought to herself as she hung up and got ready to go to bed.. Nobody calls at this hour if all they want to do is hang out... Whatever happened in Christoffer and Selmas marriage wasn't really any of her concern.. Soon she would have her own to think about, but for now...
Good night.
Other happenings:
Kari Slettemoen has relocated to a new home with her husband Dimitov and their son Svenn. Interestingly Anne-Gerd Jørgensen, who is just a friend of the couple, still tags along with them instead of finding her own place...
Their new house is one of the many old typical brick houses found in the area.
Dongmei Xie-Luo, a colleague of Gaute and another parent of a set of twins (Hung and Jiang), just got promoted to wing woman in her career.
Wanda and Fred Westgård that runs the orphanage also became the parents of a new boy called Magnar.
I missed out on a birthday party, because Hoda Odinsdatter just had her 18th birthday and is now considered a young adult. She also got a job in the sports career. On this picture, she is at the library talking to Dimitov Slettemoen that became her new boss. This wasn't on purpose as I always try to catch and celebrate their birthdays, but, well.. can't be everywhere all at once.
Leon Maneval, the car enthustiastic frenchman, has now either dumped or been dumped by Anne-Gerd Jørgensen and has found a new lover in Siw Falch. Here he is outside her house, supposedly going for a nightly visit of the kind that Christoffer Vaddelmyr was hoping for when he called Solvej.. I thought earlier that Anne-Gerd had finally found a partner, but it looks like she is just continuing her streak of being eternally unlucky in love..
Life is different for different people.. where some always fails, other have found success that just keeps on being successful.. This is Karoline Gundersen in the hallway of her house with her husband Kabelo Gundersen and their son Alexander. Let's hope this is how Solvej and Patriks future marriage will turn out.
Disclaimer: This post (obviously...) does not look like I want it to. The full post in its original form will be posted at my blog, as soon as I get up to date with it, however that could take a while because there currently I'm only at chapter 4.
(Here it is. It's also linked to on a post on the next page..
Chapter 22.1 – Bewickton– January 2023:
Alright folks! Well, now that half a year has gone by for the people in the town of Sprottenham, as well as Sunset Valley and the university students of Lake Onebega it's time to catch up with the people living in the coastal community of Bewickton, just off the west coast... so it's time to bring out the map again, because I wouldn't know where anything is without looking at a map.
Last time we saw this town was when Leya, Gaute and Bodil left after visiting Leyas family and celebrating christmas with them, following her fathers stay and recovery at the hospital after he suffered a stroke just last year..
The last active household here was that of Leyas brother, Palash Chitrakaar, and his wife, Sofia Chitrakaar (nee Karlsen). So that's where I end up when I go back here, with Palash working out and being watched by their little puppy Yumi.
Sofia is, as I should have expected, at the fire station doing maintenance work on the fire truck. It's important to keep it in tip top shape in case of emergency. Palash's brother Bhavan also works in the fire department and after Sofia is done with the fire truck she wants to head over to talk to him, but...
..something is making her sick. "Ugggh.... why did I have to eat so many pancakes for breakfast? I guess this is the price I have to pay.. oh, who am I kidding.. Don't be silly Sofia, you know it's not the pancakes.."
(This part is missing).
Now, one of the things that Sofia dreaded the most is excactly what has been going on in Palashs sister Udishas house for the past months.. just like Solvej and Patrik in Sprottenham, Udisha and her husband have felt the lack of sleep on their bodies...
It has been a pain sometimes for the ambitious minded businesswoman Udisha, especially in the beginning when she had to take days off work to care for her daughter and youngest child, Madhunisha..
It's not any less stressful for the old man Dudleif, and having babies has slowed down his career of busting his own corrupt family, too..
For a brief moment Dudleif thinks he can enjoy a bit of romance with his wife, probably the main reason why they ended up having three children, but there is no time for it now, because work calls.. and their middle child Ole Christian just woke up and decided to wander off... better go after him and stop him before he gets stuck falling down the stairs...
"Here you go young man. I'll take you downstairs and feed you.. you're to young yet to do that on your own.."
Then there's their oldest child, Nishit, who has been slacking on his homework duties since last time.. He would like it if his younger siblings could just grow up a little faster, or atleast be more quiet, so he could actually focus on getting it done..
Dudleif and Nishit leaves for work and school on this rainy january morning, and it's time to call a babysitter to care for the youngest ones for a while..
The babysitter shows up on time and does a good enough job for the short while he has to be there.
The reason for that was that Dudleif was let off early from his job, and with a promotion and is now working at level 7 as a Crime Scene Technician! Lucky Dudleif.
So he got to go home to care for the kids and do some necessary housework again.
He was just about to teach Ole Christian to use the potty when Deepak called him to congratulate him with the recent promotion. Deepak must have his antennas out on a very sensitive setting, or word just spreads incredibly fast around town.
Fact: Dudleif is married to Deepaks oldest daughter, yet he is only one year younger than Deepak... make of that what you will, but Dudleif is about 36 years older than his wife.... Them pairing up, getting married and having children was all autonomous, I had no part in it! But love is love, so if that's what they, I'll go with it...
Udisha didn't get promoted and had to work a full day, and since she is so ambitous, she always works hard. She didn't excactly feel like going home to the kids then, so instead she went to get a good salty scrub at the day spa just across the street.
Nishit biked home in the misty rain after having spent his time after school at the boy scouts where he earned a trophy.
The visit at the day spa was relaxing and did her good, but Udisha only had time to make sure Ole Christian was fed before she had to go to bed from being tired..
Nishit tried again to evade doing his homework by playing on the spring rider outside, but Dudleif wouldn't let him get away that easily.
Then finally it was time to give Ole Christian some much needed potty training before going to bed and hopefullygetting some sleep..
Ole Christian is old enough to find his toddler bed on his own and will ask to get fed whenever he gets hungry, but Madhunisha is still a lot more dependant on her parents.. Things should get a little easier though by next month when she will have her first birthday and can start to learn a few more skills too.
Now that mom had been woken up by the youngest one Ole Christian didn't want to go to sleep without hearing a bedtime story, so Udisha read him one from the cookbook about the salt shaker that accidentally fell into the chicken korma and ruined everyones day..
..before he was strictly told to go to sleep in his own bed! Mom and dad wanted to get as much peace as they could.. Dudleif had to get up again to give the youngest one a little more attention, but eventually the quiet slowly descended on this household and everyone could get some rest..
Of course this one, the up and coming birthday child, wasn't sleeping, but atleast she was quiet for a (welcome) change!
Good night!
Other happenings:
Christina Østreng (age: 19 years) has found a boyfriend in Notzo Curious. Christina was Nityas date for her prom night. Nitya is Udishas sister and the youngest child of Laranya and Deepak.
Charmain Mandahl-Gyldendals babies Denis and Ursula aged up to toddlers. Then Madhunisha can have some friends that are her age as she gets older.
Regine Willamsen-Brun became an elder and retired at age 66, though she looks like she has lived a hard life. Average life expectancy for the Simbrian nation is currently 82 years.
Ending note:
A marriage has been promised between Solvej and Patrik and it will happen, but sticking to my original plan I have to make this shift in time and location once more, but we will see Solvej and Patrik again at a later time too.
Comments
Now, what I had plan for this season was to follow Amena and George until they had their new home built and was ready to move in there. However, given Ranveigs initiative last month following Lise Veronicas birthday, I think I'm gonna have to follow Ranveig, Monica and Lise Veronica a little bit as well.. was not part of my plan, but I do appreciate the initiative taken to perhaps once and for all get rid of the condition that has plagued the family for almost three generations now...
So yeah, things happen that are not in line with what I have thought, but that's just how it is. Do my sims care? Nope! They live their own lives as they darn well please, and that's probably excactly how it should be!
Also, there will be a couple more kids that will age up to teenagers soon. That is Ranveigs youngest son Robert Bråge, and Lise Veronicas cousin Bjørn-Yngve. They will both get their own birthday updates a little later.
Some days have passed now since Lise Veronicas birthday, but it's still fresh in her memory. Aging up is such a strange thing..
"All of a sudden my body just got a lot bigger and more difficult to handle.. Just the other day I was having a glass of milk with my breakfast, but when I tried to grab it, it wasn't where I thought it was, so I tipped it over instead spilling all the milk all over the table.. and then I did trip over my own feet a few times to when running for school from the schoolbus. That was just so embarassing, I hope nobody saw it happening! I thought I heard someone laughing, so I just wished I could disappear then into a black hole or something, but I heard the bell ringing, and I know mom would get angry with me if she figured out I was skipping school, so I had to go..."
In the room next to Lise Veronicas, her parents Monica and Ivar got a rude awakening as their little boy Thomas woke up and was feeling hungry... Kids, they grow up so fast. Just in less than a years time it will be his turn to age up and start school for the first time, but for now he is very much dependent on mommy and daddy for most things...
Daddy grumpily takes him downstairs to feed him in the baby high chair, before he gets an idea..
"I think it's time to test the sound quality of the stereo I gave her for her birthday.. you know, just to see how good it is.. can't listen to music on a sub-par stereo!"
"Good morning, Lise Veronica! Time to wake up!"
Yeah, right.. test the sound quality of the stereo huh? That's what I call a j'erk move!
"...what? What's going on? Why is the stereo on now? I thought I turned it off before going to bed.."
..and her father? Well, after waking up his daughter, he just went back to bed.. atleast now he knows she'll wake up in time for school..
..and have someone that can go downstairs and care for Thomas. Monica could have done it too, but she's up on the balcony honing her logic skills playing chess before going to work. :P
Waking up a lot earlier than necessary, Lise Veronica had plenty of time to eat breakfast and play video games before she stopped to think..
"..of course! It was dad.. who else could it have been? But I'll get back at him, later.. after school, and uh.. after we've been to the doctor with my aunt. My mom says my aunt wants us to go there, and I think it has something to do with.. sometimes I have been hearing these creepy things, like someone is whispering to me. I couldn't make it what they were saying, and I wasn't sure where it came from, but it looked like nobody else heard it but me. It was scary, but mom says that if we go to the doctor, the doctor can make them go away. I hope so, because I really don't like hearing it. And then I'll get back at dad for what he did! I'll so get back at him!"
A little later, after sleeping in, Ivar wakes up to take Thomas to the park. Now, since their kids are growing up, Ivar and Monica have figured it's time to expand the house. As soon as Thomas gets of school age, he can't sleep in their bedroom anymore, so the house needs an extra room. Because there isn't much room left on their lot, the only way to expand the house is upwards, so they've hired a contractor to build another room on top of the house.
This new room will be Lise Veronicas room, and Thomas will get the room she is currently having. Monicas garden had to temporarily give way to the scaffolding next to the house. It's going to be a lot of work, they're essentially going to have to tear down the roof, build another staircase and a floor, before rebuilding the roof on top of that again, but they're sure it's going to be worth it and that Lise Veronica will enjoy having her own room with a view on top of the house.
Ivar wanted to go to the park to find another sim to jam with, but of course, almost as soon as he gets out his guitar and starts playing, a very local hailstorm shows up, so he picks up Thomas and heads back home again.. guess we'll have to jam in the park another day...
Monica has advanced far enough in her career to have pretty short workdays, so she gets home from work shortly thereafter. She also got a pay rise, and thought it was time for them to upgrade to a better tv, one that cost atleast 500 simoleons..
Lise Veronica returns from school, and they talk for a while about her birthday party and gardening, while waiting for Ranveig to show up. Ivar tests out how the new tv performs while using the video game system.
Coincidentally Lise Veronica gets phoned by Margrethe, which is the daughter of the doctor they are just heading to. Margrethe is learning from her mom, so their conversation seems to revolve around the importance of taking your medicine to stay well.
Ranveig arrives while Lise Veronica is still on the phone. Ranveig talks a bit about her journalism career and how she just finished a course in photography paid by her job, before they get to the reason for her visit and it's time to go..
While they are at the doctors waiting room, Ranveig wants to make Lise Veronica feel at ease in this situation, so she talks to her about topics she thinks she would be thinking about, such as skipping school..
If Monica heard that she wouldn't enjoy it, that her sister might appear to encourage her daughter to skip school, but Monica is more concerned about something else..
"That plant on the table.. I don't like that plant, it's wire tapped! It's the government.. They're listening to us right now, and they're talking to us through these plants. They're talking and they're listening to us, they can hear everything we say and everything we think, and then they're going to take over the world.. That plant is cooperating with the government, they're manipulating us and they'll put us all in jail to take over the world and turn everyone into walking plantsims.."
After just a few minutes of waiting, the doctor comes out and calls them into her office.
Monica staring out the window and thinking: "..the trees. They're in the trees too. I can hear the trees whisper, and they're all listening to to us. They want to control our minds, but I don't want to be controlled to become a plant, and I don't..."
Ranveig: It's time to go Monica, the doctor just came out...
Monica: But the trees, Ranveig! Can't you hear the trees, and the plants! They're whispering to us..
Ranveig: Monica! You know that's not real! We have to go now...
Lise Veronica: Mom scares me.. what is she saying??
Ranveig: I uh.. I don't know.. are you coming Monica?
Monica: Yes, yes, but not so loud, they can hear us..
Ranveig: Just come...
Monica eventually snaps out of it, and follows them to the doctors office. She wants to get rid of it too. She doesn't want to have to believe that she's being listened to by government controlled plants. She's aware of how far out that sounds, and she doesn't want to act like she sometimes do, but from time to time these thoughts and voices get so invasive it becomes a real struggle to keep them seperate from what is actually real...
Inside the doctors office the conversation starts off easy, with the doctor just engaging in simple conversation to get to know her new clients a little better. What they do for a living, and just in general, what their everyday life is like. Of course, since Sunset Valley is such a small town, the doctor, whose real name is Pia Holm.-Fredriksen, knows Ranveig from before, as she is married to Ranveigs ex and Oliver Freddys father...
The doctor, or Pia, employs the same tactic as Ranveig did earlier, to make Lise Veronica feel welcomed and relaxed. She has a teenage daughter of her own at home (Margrethe), so she knows that teenagers aren't always happy to go to school. She's not encouraging skipping school, though, as a doctor, she knows she can't do that. Lise Veronica eagerly talks about how she just went shopping for new clothes, and is happy to show the doctor the dress she is wearing. She thinks it's the prettiest dress she has ever owned. It's much prettier than the clothes mom and dad bought for her, because they were almost the excact clothes as her cousin, and she couldn't go to school wearing a similar outfit as someone else! What would the others think! No way!
Then Pia – the doctor – turns to Ranveig again, to get serious and get to the main point of their visit – the treatment. She says it's going to consist of them taking medicine – antipsychotics – as well as cognitive behavioural therapy, and that it will releave them of their hallucinations and cognitive distortions. Ranveig accepts this almost immediately, whatever it takes to get better, but Monica is more skeptical and goes on the defensive.
She demands to know the price tag of all this, as well as a full and exhaustive list of all possible side effects. She's not gonna be swallowing any kind of pill unless she knows excactly what it does, and how! And it better not be made by the government!
Doctor Pia: Monica.. you work in science don't you?
Monica: Yes, that's my job.. but what does that have to do with any of this?
Doctor Pia: And through your job you're trained in rational thinking, would that be correct?
Monica: Yes, I am. Look, is this some kind of trial or something?
Doctor Pia: No, Monica. I'm not here to judge you. I'm here to help you. I'm only trying to guide you in the right direction.
Monica: So what are you saying? What are you trying to say?
Doctor Pia: Well, I overheard what you said in the waiting room, about the trees. Is that rational, Monica?
Monica: What do you mean?
Doctor Pia: About the trees and how they're whispering to you.
Monica: Well, it's not the actual trees, I'm not stupid. It's the microphones in the trees, and they're placed there by the government. It's all about mind control, because they want to take over the world.
Doctor Pia: Why do you think the government would want to do that?
Ranveig: This is nonsense, Monica...
Doctor Pia: Please, only one at a time. Monica?
Monica: Well, it's.. it's all about control. They want to turn us into plants, so they can control us. They already got scientists working on making plantsims!
Doctor Pia: Scientists.. like you?
Monica: No, not like me! The government has their own scientists!
Doctor Pia: Who pays your salary then, Monica?
Monica: Well, I work at the Landgraab reasearch facility, so it's the Landgraabs of course..
Doctor Pia: And where do they get the funding from, for their reasearch projects?
Monica: Well, it's in part from businesses that want research done on certain products, but mostly it's from the government, it's from the ...uh...
Doctor Pia: So you're a government scientist then, Monica?
Monica: I'm uh.. no, I'm uh... uh... oh, darn...
Doctor Pia: What's your current research project, Monica?
Monica: Well, currently we, me and my colleagues that is, are working on developing a new and more durable, long lasting type of concrete to be used in sim stopper fences, because the government is looking for ways to cut maintenance costs on their fences, and uh..
Doctor Pia: So... but do you know of any government funded research on trees?
Monica: No, not at our institute, not currently, but I do know they have a program doing research on how trees can be better used to capture carbon dioxide from our atmosphere, because you know, climate change and all that..
Doctor Pia: Well, that's definately interesting, but nothing about microphones or turning people into plants?
Monica: Well, I haven't seen any of that from my job, but if they do, they are of course probably keeping that secret somewhere.. though I'll do admit, it sounds pretty far out.. I know that the Landgraab institute has a self-funded project where they are looking into cross breeding between creatures and robots. My dream is to be admitted into that program one day, but that one isn't government funded, and so far I don't know about any plans to include plants and humans in there..
Doctor Pia: Hmm, well it definately sounds like they've got some interesting plans there, and I do wish you good luck on getting into that program.. now, do you accept treatment for you and your daughter?
Monica: Uhm.. I guess.. I guess I do, but I still want to know what it's gonna cost...
Doctor Pia: Yeah.. that's some of the bad news here, the treatment required is quite expensive, but the good news is that the government will pay 40 % of the bill for your treatment, and since your daughter is underage, they will finance up to 60 % of her treatment, so all in all, it's not so bad...
Monica:Wow, that's uh.. why haven't we done this before?
Ah, don't you just love a happy ending?
Ranveig: See sister, this wasn't so bad was it?
Monica: No, I guess you're right.. whispering microphones in trees, huh? Sheesh...
Ranveig: Now you take care of yourself, and do your homework for auntie, alright?
Lise Veronica: I will..
Ranveig: And no skipping school!
Lise Veronica: No skipping school, I promise!
Ranveig then leaves to go back to her own son, and the family goes back into their house.
"If I can pull a prank on dad now, this will be my fourth sucessful prank.. I want to do five, so I only have two more to go..."
"This new tv that mom bought is really great. The picture quality is so much better!"
"..you know dad, it's so great, it makes me want to skip school tomorrow!"
Then Thomas exits the bathroom behind them and wants to join the rest of the family, so he climbs up on his sisters lap and asks to watch the childrens channel. :P
Since the family life there looks so idyllic and nice, I dare to leave them alone while I check up on Amena and George. I find Amena at the local chess club, where I assume she is on duty, given that she's in her uniform. She looks out the window and gets a little dreamy eyed when she thinks about how satelites launched into space can be used to spy on international lawbreakers...
George has joined the boy scouts since last time we saw him, because that's where he was. He just left along with Robert Bråge. It looks like todays topic was fishing, as the notification says he just increased his fishing skill to level 2.
Hmm, Amena must have gotten that loan from the bank too, because now things appear to be happening on the lot she bought last month.. This looks very much like the outline and foundation of a new house. Should be interesting to see what the final results will be like.
Back at the Motor-Notesen family home, Ivar just got up from his chair to place a book back in the shelf when Lise Veronica grabs the opportunity..
..but unfortunately for her, mom saw what she did and is not happy about it, having been pranked three times already..
Lise Veronica: ..but mom, this one wasn't for you. It was for dad..
Monica: That's irrelevant! I don't want to see any more pranks in this house! Is that understood?
"Wow! Mom was really angry now... maybe if I do my homework she will be in a better mood..."
"Oh of course.. I should ask dad to help me with the homework! That should serve him right for waking me up with the stereo this morning..."
Later when it was time for supper...
Lise Veronica: You know mom, the new tv you bought sucks! Kleopatras parents has a much bigger and better tv! Why didn't you get one like that?
Monica: Now you watch it, young lady, or I won't be teaching you how to drive when that time comes!
Lise Veronica: Don't be so grumpy mom, I didn't mean it like that...
"Now I have to do a prank on both dad and mom again too, since she is being so sour..."
Lise Veronica: Hey, mom! Shouldn't you be going to the bathroom soon? I thought I heard some trees in there calling for you....
Monica: That was a very uncool thing to say..
Lise Veronica: Well, your tv still sucks..
Monica: What is this? What has gotten into you!? Do you want to go to your room or something!?
Lise Veronica: No...
Monica: Then behave! I'm not gonna sit here and take this!
Ivar: Come on my boy, I think it's time for you to go to bed now...
After Ivar had gone upstairs to tuck in Thomas, Lise Veronica sat down in his chair to continue talking..
Lise Veronica: Mom... there's a school ball coming soon, and someone from the senior year has invited me and Kleopatra to a pre-party where they will be drinking juice and playing games. Do you think I can go mom?
Monica: What!? No, not at all!! You're not going there, you're much to young to be drinking juice! Who invited you!?
Lise Veronica: Just some older guys mom, and Kleopatras parents allowed her to go!
Monica: Well, I'll talk to her parents about that, but I don't think so.. none of you are going, and I'll see to that!
Lise Veronica: You suck, mom!
Monica: Ok, that does it, I'm not gonna listen to this anymore! I'll go to bed now, and I suggest you do the same! I'll have a talk with your dad and Kleopatras parents tomorrow, and you'd better stay in line from now on! One more word like that from you, and you'll be grounded on the night of the ball and you won't be going anywhere!!
Lise Veronica: Whatever you say mom...
Ivar is on his way down again, and meets Monica on her way up halfway down the stairs...
Ivar: What was all that about? Your mom looked really furious...
Lise Veronica: I don't know dad, she's been really grumpy all evening..
Ivar: And you had no part in that?
Lise Veronica: Good night dad, I'm going to bed now...
Ivar: Good night, but I think we have something to talk about tomorrow...
Yep, sounds like they have something to discuss among them here.. After everyone else had fallen asleep, Ivar sat up for another hour and a half playing video games, before he finally decided to hit the sheets as well, and their home was once more peaceful and quiet...for now atleast...
Good night.
Sub blogs: #01 Sunset Valley. #02: Lake Onebega #03: Sprottenham #04: Bewickton
Rebel Heart by Madonna Louise Veronica Ciccone, better known as just Madonna.
Advice to parents: In spite of the sticker shown there on the image, this song is not actually explicit, and is perfectly safe and appropriate for your teenager to listen to!
This happy little fellow was the first to wake early, early in the morning to play with the building block toys that are still in his sisters bedroom.. This is why they are building a new bedroom for her, because if he should get hungry now, guess who's gonna wake up early again..
..but trying to figure out how these building blocks work (and taste) is so much fun, he didn't notice he was hungry, and big sister got to sleep in just right.
Mixed feelings... "I love my little brother, he's really cute when he's playing with those toys, but why does it have to be in my room? Ughh..."
Well, hang in there, you'll get a new one eventually..
She is a responsible sister though, and takes her brother down to feed him and watch a little bit of tv before school. Some peace and quiet with mom and dad still sleeping!
Well, not for long, because here comes mom. And I'm thinking.. what is that? What are you wearing? This is actually the first time I see Monica in her sleepwear.. Before she just slept in whatever she wanted.. swimwear, outdoor wear, it didn't matter, but since they went to the doctor, things have normalized a little, and how she actually uses the right outfit for the occasion. :P
Lise Veronica tries to engage in conversation with her mom about the program they're watching, but Monica doesn't talk back. She still looks a little grumpy from yesterday.. who is the child here? Well, it's supposed to be the one on the right...
"I don't know what's up with mom lately.. she got really grumpy yesterday, and this morning she wouldn't talk to me. She just came down to watch tv, care for Thomas and then go off to work, as if I wasn't even there. I don't get it.. doesn't she like me anymore? She's my mom, she has to. Well, maybe I did say some things yesterday that I shouldn't have said.. The tv isn't really that bad, and I was just trying to make some jokes.. I don't know.."
"I just need to cross off one more prank on my list. It's probably not a good idea to do any more pranks at home, or mom won't let me go to the ball! I have to go to class now, but I'll see if I can't sneak away when the teachers aren't looking to do something.. I'm not sure what, but I'll probably figure something out.."
Since Ivar works afternoons in the music business, he has a different sleep schedual from the others, getting up late and staying up late. He still had some time for breakfast and playtime with Thomas, before he had to go to work and leave the house to the maid and the babysitter..
The maid and the babysitter is not the same person, but that doesn't make a difference for Thomas, as long as it's an adult or at least older person that can take care of him. The maid was reluctant to pick him up first, but after he asked her five times for a hug, she eventually caved in..
The actual babysitter didn't care about Thomas at all. She was much more interested in talking to the maid, and she seems to be interested in cleaning too. Maybe they should have switched roles...
Monica has advanced for enough in her career to have relatively short workdays, so she gets home early and then the useless babysitter is paid and dismissed...
Monica still has a desire to upgrade things, though, so she goes to have a look at the kitchen sink..
"Hmm, I wonder if I can apply some of the same techniques on these faucets as we just did with the sim stopper fence.. if I somehow can make these more durable as well.. I don't really like to have water splashed on me... Maybe I can even prevent Lise Veronica from being able to do pranks with the kitchen sink..."
At the Sunset Valley School for Gifted Children, the bell rings and the school bus honks. Some kids are staying for their after school activities, and the rest of them are going back home to their mom and dad.. all of them, except one..
"I tried to sneak off to do a prank, but the teachers were always watching, so I didn't get to do one.. Maybe later...*
"I didn't want to go home either, in case mom was still mad at me, so I sat down behind the school to do my homework.."
"Then I got hungry and needed something to eat.. I don't get to much in allowance, so I didn't want to go to a restaurant, it's to expensive for me. The Blitzkrieg house is really nice, because they have really cheap food there, so that's where I went. I think it's a good place for young people to stay, and while you're there, you can just do whatever you want. They literally have no rules, as long as you're not being mean and starting fights."
Picture: The Blitzkrieg house, the local rebel hangout in Sunset Valley.
"They have books there, too, that you can read. Sometimes there may be some interesting books there. It's kind of like.. you can take a book home with you, if you just replace it with a book and nobody will care. If you take a book, you will always have to leave one behind, and this way there will always be some new books to read. There's a lot of cook books here and books about politics and things like that. I like the books that are about protesting the best. I want to be in a protest one day, because I think the adults, they just don't know how to run the world properly. They only think about themselves and how to make more money and then they just get old and die. I don't want to live like that, I want to care about the animals instead."
"There was an old woman there too. I didn't know that the elderly also like to hang out here. She said she was happy about the younger generations coming to this place. Apparently she was one of the people that first started this place or something, by just.. taking over an abandoned building and turning it into a place for young people to hang out Like she just stole the place and said it was hers? She really liked to read as well, and she recommended I read a book called "Critique of Political Economy" by some guy. I think she said Gnarl Barx or something, but I don't know. I don't really understand politics, and I'm not old enough to vote. I wouldn't know who to vote for anyway. I think it's all a little complicated. She looked just as old as grandma, and I wondered why she wasn't in a home for elderly people already!"
"I have never been in this building before. Mom always told me it wasn't a building for children, but I'm not a child anymore. I wanted to explore more of it, so I walked up the stairs to to the second floor and I found this room with some refridgerators, a couch and some other stuff. I don't know what this room is for, but I thought the couch would be a perfect place to do my last prank."
"This place had a basement too, and when I walked down there I found what looked like some music room, because there were lots of instruments in there. Kleopatra was also there, with her friend Olivia from school. I don't know Olivia that well, and I heard her mom likes to steal stuff, so I tried to keep away from her."
"Kleopatra told me someone must have been talking, because when she came home from school today, her mom was acting a little strange. She thought her mom must have figured out about the pre-party somehow, because she was asking lots of questions about the school ball, and insisted that she should drive her there. I didn't dare tell her that it was probably my mom that had told her. Next time I'm going to keep it a secret and not tell my mom anything!"
"I tried to tell Kleopatra that we could try to sneak out and go anyway, but she said it was to risky now that her mom knew and everything. She said she'd heard about kids even going to juvenile court for not listening to their parents, and she didn't want to risk that! I didn't know they could send kids to court, is that legal? But Kleopatra said she didn't want to go anymore, and if she isn't going, than I don't know if I will either, because I don't want to go there alone."
"I like this place though. Someone had even lit up a huge bonfire in the backyard, so that everyone could stay warm outside also after dark. I have never seen such a huge bonfire before, I think this place will be my new favorite hangout."
"I didn't want to go home yet, so I went back upstairs to that room on the second floor. That room there was interesting, and I wanted to see what was behind those doors there."
"The door on the left actually had a bathroom with a bathtub. It looked a little special like someone had been getting creative in there. I wasn't sure if it would actually work, or why there was a bathtub up there, but I was getting a little smelly so I thought I could try it out."
Back home mom was starting to get a little concerned.. Her father had finished his evening shift, it was already dark out..
"Ivar.. do you have any idea where our daughter is? It's friday night and she should have been home by now.. I just hope she's not hanging out with those older boys..."
Ivar: Relax, she'll probably be home soon.. didn't you used to stay out late when you were her age?
Monica: Well, sometimes, but this is different... I'll call her. She should be home now.
Back at the Blitzkrieg house, Lise Veronica had gone downstairs into the music room when her phone rang...
Lise Veronica: Hi.. hi mom...
Monica: Where are you? You should've been home now. It's late, and I'm worried about you.
Lise Veronica: I'm uh.. I'm over at a friends house....
Monica: What friend? Where are you? Who is that playing guitar in the background?
Lise Veronica: It's uh.. it's Kleopatras mom! She just bought a new.. guitar, isn't that c... cool, mom?
Monica: Really? Why is she playing guitar for you at this hour? Can I talk to her for a second?
Lise Veronica: Uhh... n... no, she's uh.. busy... She uh.. has to finish the song first..
Monica: Hmm, you're not really there are you?
Ivar (in the background): She's probably at the Blitzkreig house.. I used to go hang out at a similar place when I was her age and had fought with my parents...
Monica: Are you at the Blitzkrieg house?
Lise Veronica: N-no, mom... Kleopatras dad is about to make us uh.. chicken, and we're just about to uh.. eat.
Monica: What, in the dark? I don't think so. I can see their house from here, and all their lights are off... Stay right where you are, I'll come pick you up!
Lise Veronica: But mom...
Monica: Looks like I'll be out for a few minutes. I'll be right back...
Monica runs out the back door of their house and gets in her car, to drive to the Blitzkrieg house. On the way there she drives past the Motor-Karlsen home just next door where Kleopatra and her family lives, and sure enough it looks dark and quiet, so Lise Veronica probably isn't there. She's not 100 % sure that's where her daughter actually is, but where else other than the Blitzkrieg house could she be? Apart from the gym and the pubs that she can't get into anyway, there aren't to many places to hang out at this hour, and she's not very likely to be at the gym...
She runs into the house and down into the basement where she knows the music room is, to find Lise Veronica now practicing the drums.
Monica: Lise Veronica! Put down the drumsticks, you're coming home with me!
Lise Veronica: But mom.. It's friday night and there's no school tomorrow.. can't I just stay out a little while longer? I have already done my homework, I did it earlier today..
Monica: No, you're coming home with me. Bedtime is bedtime, and you shouldn't be out now.
Lise Veronica: That's not fair mom! I'm not a five year old, you don't have to treat me like a baby!
Monica: You're still to young to be out at this hour, so that's not up for discussion! Now come with me and get in the car, I'm taking you home.
Lise Veronica: But mom.. I was just learning to play the drums!
Monica: The drums aren't going anywhere. Now you're coming with me, or I'll forbid you to go back here!
Lise Veronica: Fine then, but this is dumb!
Monica: Just get in the car.
Well, Monica isn't giving her much of a choice, so if she wants to go back to those drums again, she has to follow... of course, this doesn't go by without people noticing, and it seems gossip is already spreading..
Translation of pop-up textbox: "Some say that Lise Veronica Motor-Notesen has a guilty conscience. Can it be true?"
Back home Monica tells her daughter to go to bed for the second time, before Lise Veronica once more lashes out at her moms, in her eyes, lack of intelligence..
Monica: Enough! You've been out all day without letting us know where you were going, you don't come home at night, and you refuse to get in the car when I come to pick you up! And on top of that, you're now going to insult me and call me stupid! Go to your room!
Monica: You have to understand, we're not doing this to be mean or because we're stupid.. we're your parents, we're worried about you! We just want to know that you're doing well, and that nothing happens to you.. you know?
Lise Veronica: Maybe... but I thought I could stay out longer since I became older? And I'm sorry about the thing I said about the tv earlier, it's actually not so bad.. I'm sorry mom, but I just want to be like the other big girls, you know.. why aren't their parents there to pick them up?
Monica: Well, I can't really tell you that.. Maybe it's because they're older, or maybe because their parents just don't care as much?
Monica: Now listen, if you can prove to me now that you can be responsible, always let me know where you're going and for how long you're gonna stay and be home in time, I might just let you stay out a little longer eventually... but you're gonna have to prove it to me, first. Again, I'm not doing this because I want to be mean, but you've gotta learn to act responsibly and care for yourself properly, before I can begin to let you off the hook. You got that?
Lise Veronica: I think so, mom...
Monica: Good! And don't forget to brush your teeth before going to bed!
Lise Veronica: Ok mom...
Phew! Well, finally she went to bed, and peace could be restored in the Motor-Notesen home. It seems she can be a bit of a handful at times that one, but hmm.. I'm sure she'll grow into a decent adult being one day! She's definately still very young and has a lot left to learn! :P
Good night.
Sub blogs: #01 Sunset Valley. #02: Lake Onebega #03: Sprottenham #04: Bewickton
This is a slow 'inbetween' update where I decided to mostly just watch the family for a day while waiting for the next day where Lise Veronica will go to the school ball (if she behaves properly and her mother allows her to go, that is.;) )
It was a rainy morning in Sunset Valley, and the family slept for well into the day since they stayed up so late last night waiting for Lise Veronica to come home..
Thomas the toddler-child was as usual the first one to wake up to do his morning routine of going into his sisters bedroom to play with the building blocks.
Ivar woke up next to feed him by the staircase, after trying three times, because he thought Thomas wanted to go downstairs. However, as most toddlers, he would just sit on top of the staircase looking down thinking it was a little to scary for him still...
Monica was having a few issues to when she woke up. In all the stress of yesterday night she had forgotten to take care of her own needs before going to bed..
..but it's nothing that can't be fixed, and after having done a very satisfying number one (you probably know the feeling!), mother and daughter go downstairs to have breakfast in their own way. Mom is being clever and eating the leftovers, but Lise Veronica insists on learning how to cook, so she goes to make her own serving. :P
Thomas wants some attention from his sister and asks her for a hug. Monica pays close attention to her daughters cooking.. "Don't forget you got something in the oven...."
Ivar vaguely suggests the idea to send Lise Veronica off to the LeFromage Art Boarding school.. "I think what she needs is a good creative outlet, you know. Something that will take her mind off of doing pranks and other mischief..."
Due to the poor spring weather outside, the family pretty much decided to spend their day indoors in their pyjamas, with Monica and Lise Veronica watching tv and Ivar teaching his son about the notes of the xylophone.
Just the other day Ivar had also realized he had to buy a washing machine to go with the tumble drier, and well, he also finally became a victim of one of Lise Veronicas pranks..
Ivar is a pretty laid back guy, usually, so he didn't say much about the prank, and Monica wanted to make sure Lise Veronica knew how to use her phone to let her know where she was going if she wasn't coming home after school..
After spending a good few hours just watching tv, Monica decided she wanted to upgrade the newly bought washing machine to be more durable as well..
While Monica was out of the room, Lise Veronica complained to her father about what her mom just said about using her phone to let her know where she was going just the same moment her phone rang..
It was Kristina Reppe that called her, and wanted to invite her to the school ball. Lise Veronica accepted the invitaton, and it seems that was a good choice, as they were listed as old friends.
A little later Monica gets an invitation, too. Kathrine Kråke-Karlsen was having a party and wanted her to come over.
Lise Veronica: Don't stay up to late, mom...
Monica didn't listen much to her daughters remark, and off she went, out into the rainy sunset.. :P
Kathrine lives in this house by the beach on Sunnyside Boulevard 477. The house was built by her husband Jonathans parents Asgeir and Lucie Karlsen meant to be used as a cottage for them after they got insanely rich from their careers as a painter/writer (Asgeir) and a doctor (Lucie). However this was before their relationship went south and they divorced...
The memory they both hold of their divorce. This is an actual memory, from early on in my game before I started taking screenshots. I still have this in my memory too, but it plays out more like a video...because I had never seen something like that in game before.. they had been fighting for quite a while before this event. She came home from work, and as soon as she stepped foot on the lot, he immediately stopped whatever he was about to do and ran out the door and divorced right then and there!
Later the house by the beach was then handed over to Jonathan when he became a young adult and was ready to move out on his own. This may in part also explain his younger sister Sofies grumpy demeanor... Well, that, and how she as a toddler overheard her parents violently arguing and then physically fighting each other in their library room while she was playing with her toys, shortly before their divorce..
This might be Asgeirs memory after their most vicious fight in the library room while they were still married... a fight which he lost, by the way..
Well, enough about the old wounds from the past... The first thing Monica does when she enters the party, is to go upstairs into Jonathan and Kathrines bedroom, where they have a small office as well, to find a book to read. They also have a pretty big bookshelf in the living room, so that should've been uneccesary, but you know.. sims. :P
Amena was also at the party, talking enthusiastically about the garden she was going to have once her new home was finished. She was in Jonathan and Kathrines workout room along with Bebe Hart-Bunch, and their oldes daughter, Ingrid.
Monicas mother Eirin was also there, in the kitchen talking to Morten about cartoons, before she walks into the living room to say hi to Monica and turn on some music.
..and back home, well, maybe Lise Veronica was right about the tv all along, because it looks like it broke, so Ivar and her had to resort to pillow fighting each other instead for entertainment...
Bebe Hart-Bunch had gone into the living room to entertain everyone with playing guitar (acoustic of course! She never touch an electric guitar, much to high tech...) Monica was still reading that book. It turns out it was a very thick book about some medicine related topic.. It was likely one of Kathrines books since she works at the hospital.
What is interesting, but typical, is that neither Kathrine nor Jonathan was actually at home when the party began, only their son Morten, until Jonathan came home a good while later.. Bebe was still playing guitar, and Monica was still reading that book. :P
Back home Ivar had called for a repair person to come fix the tv, but it seems they have now discovered a past time that was much more fun than always watching tv... :P
Monica finally put the book down to notice that her mom was in the room, and it looks like Kathrine had come home too.
Bebe was still going strong and entertaining them with the guitar. I think the guy cheering on the left is Connor Frio, but I'm not entirely sure. The woman with the same hair as Bebe is not a clone of hers, but Ine Melhus. She was Asgeirs girlfriend for a while after the divorce, until he dumped because she was to childish, always playing with Jonathan and Sofies toys....
Morten wants Eirin to read him a bedtime story, but as she approaches the bookshelf, she gets a little nervous about something that makes her forget what she was about to do, so he goes to ask his sister instead..
..but she forgets about it too, because she's much more excited about being invited to a party by her own mom. They talk about kids toys and shoes for a while, before Ingrid wants to take a selfie with her.
Kathrine is pregnant, and Ingrid just got a boyfriend, so there might be things on the way.
"Look your best, mom!"
And while they were taking a picture of themselves, all the other guests except Monica had gone home, so she now took over the guitar duties, playing totally out of tune and sync with the stereo..
It was getting really late now, so Ivar put Thomas to bed before going to sleep, but Lise Veronica...?
Nope, she wasn't going to bed! Dad hadn't said anything, and mom was still out!
But she would probably go home soon, as Kathrine started to feel sick, said the party was over and told Monica and Ingrid to leave..
Monica wanted to talk to Ingrid about her career in politics, but Ingrid, the snob, didn't want to discuss politics with someone of lesser intelligence like Monica..
Monica: Argh! What's wrong with you youngsters! If you were my daughter... I'm not gonna take being called stupid all the time!
"I'm out of here..."
Monica: Lise Veronica.. it's 4 in the morning! Why aren't you in bed?
Lise Veronica: I was just waiting for you, mom.. where have you been?
Monica: I've been over at Kathrines house, like I told you..
Lise Veronica: But how come you can stay up so late, mom..?
Monica: Because I'm an adult. Now, do you want to go to that ball tomorrow?
Lise Veronica: Yes of course, mom!
Monica: Then go to bed and get yourself some sleep! And don't forget to brush your teeth...
Lise Veronica: Well ok then mom....
"Yawn... I think it's bedtime for me too now...good night..."
Sub blogs: #01 Sunset Valley. #02: Lake Onebega #03: Sprottenham #04: Bewickton
It was a beatiful and sunny morning in Sunset Valley, with Ivar and Thomas being the first ones to get out of bed for some skill practice. Thomas continued with his habit of going into his sisters room to play with the toy building blocks, and Ivar chose to sharpen his mind outside with the chess table.
..and the ladies of the house slept until way past sunrise.
But that was alright, because Thomas and Ivar enjoyed their time alone, man to man, just father and son.
This was the day of the school ball, so naturally planning what to wear was the first thing on Lise Veronicas mind when she woke up...
She's not going to wear it until tonight, but she has to try it on anyway, and of course, also plan the make up, and just in general freshen up the face.
"Hmmm... yeah, I think this should do. Now I just have to wipe it off again.. I'm not gonna wear this make-up in front of mom and dad..."
Hmm, the growing season in Sunset Valley definately works a little different from what I'm used to. It's only spring time, but Monicas vegetables seem ripe for the picking already...
Inside Ivar was playing his video games when Lise Veronica had something she wanted to ask him.
Lise Veronica: Dad.. I was browsing on the school computers just the other day, and I came across this site where you can adopt cats and kittens.. and they had the cutest cat there. A little kitten called Pelsdott.. They had even posted videos of her, she was so cute. Can we adopt her, dad?
Ivar: Oh, sure.. why not? If you really want a cat, I think that can be fixed. Did they have a phone number?
Lise Veronica: Oh, yes, sure, I saved it on my phone.. can I make the call to adopt little Pelsdott?
Ivar: Sure, go ahead.
Lise Veronica didn't hesitate to make the call, and she was happy to have asked dad and not mom. She wasn't really sure if mom would have said yes, and if she did, she would probably have a list of conditions that came with it.. Dad was much easier this way!
Lise Veronica then heads upstairs to take a shower to get ready for the school ball, and makes a strange face on the way...
Lise Veronica: Haaaa, I'm going to get a cat!
Thomas (thinking): My sister is weird...
Then a taxi parks outside, and out comes Kristina Reppe. Monica is still out working in the garden, so she goes over to her to talk.
Shortly thereafter another car stops on the road by their house. A woman that none of them have seen before walks out of the car and up to Monica to introduce herself.
Woman: Hi, I'm Guro Melbye from the animal shelter. I'm here with Pelsdott, the kitten you adopted. Was it you I talked to on the phone?
Kristina: Oh! You've adopted a kitten!! Can I see it?? Where is it??
Monica: A kitten? Hmm, that must have been my daughter..
Monica: Will it um...? Does it scratch?
Monica was a little concerned about suddenly having a kitten in the house. She was worried about needing to use band aids..
Guro Melbye: Oh, just be careful when you bathe it, and it should be alright..
Monica: Bathe it? Oh.. yes, of course..
Monica (thinking): .. I think I'll leave the bathing to Lise Veronica..
While they are talking, a taxi is seen leaving in the background, leaving from Eivind (Monicas brother) and Sofies house just next door.
That's Kleopatra, their daughter and Lise Veronicas cousing, going to the school ball. Kristina notices the taxi, and who is sitting in it, and feels a little bad on Kleopatras behalf.
Kristina (thinking): Poor Kleopatra, going alone to the school ball in a taxi.. maybe she couldn't get a date, or maybe she was stood up..
Then a car is heard honking outside their lot too, and whoa, that is some transportation! That can't have been cheap to rent...
Monica had walked inside and commanded Ivar to go out and pick up Pelsdott. She didn't want to touch the kitten, in case it would scratch or bite... Lise Veronica had heard the honking, and walked outside to talk to Kristina.
Lise Veronica: I just adopted a kitten today! She's called Pelsdott, and she's just so cute and adorable!
Kristina: That is so sweet! I saw the lady that came here and dropped her off! I saw the kitten too, it looked so cute!
Kristina: We don't have a kitten at home, I never thought about that, but we have a baby! My little sister Emmy is the cutest baby ever!
Yeah.. that's all fine and dandy, but girls.. that limo keeps honking for you, why won't you get in?
Well, after much talking and goofing about, Lise Veronica finally figures out that she has to put on her dress and get inside the limo to go to the school ball..
Lise Veronica: Are you coming Kristina? I think we have to go now, so we won't be late...
Kristina: Oh, oh.. yes, of course.. the limo!
I guess it's a thing with sims that they sometimes are a little absent minded, even if they aren't.. that's when the powers above sometimes has to interfere and guide them a little, so that they get to do what they want to do..
..but they made it, just in time, and so the ball could begin...
..and then they leave us, and we won't get to follow them inside...
With the kids at the school ball, Monica returned to working in her garden. It feels quite relaxing now, when she no longer believes her plants are wire tapped by the government..
"I can't believe I used to think that... well, I'm glad I don't anymore.. Gardening is actually quite enjoyable.. I just hope the girls are behaving properly at the school ball!"
Oh, don't worry mom, I think the girls are doing just fine and enjoying themselves....
And then someone popped a question...(here begin the pop-ups..)
Translation: Lise Veronica briefed with some smooth dancing steps when Kristina asked her if they should be together!
Now.. I would prefer that anything that had to do with romantic relationships were left completely up to the sims, you know, to avoid things going wrong and violent break-ups, as seen in the past... or if it should happen anyway, it won't be my fault....but when a question like this shows up, I just can't say no... and since this was already their doing, because Kristina asked Lise Veronica to go to the ball.. I had her say yes, and they now got their first romance!
And it just got better from there, no way this night could go wrong!
Translation: All of Lise Veronicas friends was envious with her! She just got crowned the ball queen! Careful, you might end up having a girl fight!
Translation: Kristina convinced Lise Veronica that a meteorite was on it's way, and that they had to kiss as fast as possible. Lise Veronica decided to give in, and was positively surprised.
First kiss!
A sims first kiss can make them feel joy for a long time afterwards.
+ 40 mood.
Time left: 24 hours.
Translation: Lise Veronica impresses Kristina with the chicken dance, there's no doubt about it! Kristina also began to dance it! This duo has chemistry!
Well, now we're getting silly here... :P
While Lise Veronica and Kristina really enjoyed themselves at the school ball, Ivar had to go out shopping for some new items for the latest member of the family..
..and the little pelsdott/furball was sleeping peacefully on the lawn.
On the beach just below their house, Kristinas father Jarle Reppe was spreading some inappropriate gossip to Robert-Bråge (Ranveigs son and Lise Veronicas cousin).
Jarle: I heard Olivia Frydenlund was caught red handed woohooing inside the town hall!
He didn't excactly like what he heard... "That's gross...." he replied...
..but back at the school ball things were going great for the remainder of the evening.
Monica went to check out the new toilet for the kitten, and it made her cry!
I'm not sure how to explain that reaction, to be honest... does the kitten really scare you that much?
"Poor cat.. having to relieve themselves in such a cheap litter box.... it's just a box with sand.. a cheap box with sand..."
Right.. well, umm, that's what cats are supposed to do, Monica... I don't think the cat really cares about the price tag on it... sorry not sorry, but I'm not feeling you here!
Well, she didn't sob for long, of course, and was soon back to playing video games. Ivar thought it was bedtime for Thomas, and picked him up to put him to sleep.
Outside the school, the ball was now finished and the kids were leaving through the back door. Lise Veronica ran up to Kristina to give her a friendly hug before they would part ways for the night.
..but this made Kristina want to give Lise Veronica a cheesy comment..
Kristina: You are as beautiful as the sky, the clouds and the sun...
Lise Veronica: Aww, hehe...
Lise Veronica: Hey, Kristina! Look, there, on the wall! Isn't that a drop of water?
Kristina: What?
Lise Veronica: I think it's going to rain soon! Those beautiful clouds might just dump a real soaking!
* splash *
Kristina: Oh, I'll get you for this! Mom is not gonna like it if I come home soaked in these nice clothes!
This could have ended in them having a water balloon fight, but Lise Veronica gets distracted because Olivia Ursine decides to entertain everyone in front of the school with her guitar.
Margrethe and Kleopatra joins her watching, and Kristina sits down in the back to do her homework..
Then Lise Veronicas phone rings, and of course it's...
"...mom. Yes.. yes, mom, I'll be.. I'll be right home.. Yes, yes, mom..."
When the curfew is up and mom calls you gotta go home.
Monica: So, how did the ball go? Did you have fun?
Lise Veronica: Oh yes, mom! We had a great time! They crowned me the queen of the ball, and we were like the celebrities of the ball! It was really great mom!
Monica: That sounds really great! Look, maybe, if you want to take your new friend Kristina to the movies one day, I can buy you the tickets.. if you promise to not do any pranks this week!
Lise Veronica: That's cool, mom.. I think I'm done doing pranks now, and I think it's time I go to bed..
Lise Veronica: I'll go brush my teeth now! Good night, mom!
Monica (thinking): Oh, I'm so proud.. what a beutiful daughter, I didn't even have to tell her to go to bed this time!
Well, she forgot to take her make up off before going to bed, but that's not so important.
Good night.
Bonus pictures:
Close up of their faces.
I experimented with adding some light, because I thought it was to dark with them standing in the shadow.
However, I ended up liking the darker pictures more anyway. Will try with a weaker light next time I do a photoshoot of sims. :P
Their prom picture.
Sub blogs: #01 Sunset Valley. #02: Lake Onebega #03: Sprottenham #04: Bewickton
This year is gonna be heavy on the birthday celebrations, and now it's time for Ranveigs youngest son to celebrate his..
Sim profile:
Full name: Robert Bråge Motorsen
Date of birth: March 17th, 2010.
Personality traits: Loves the outdoors, genius, absent minded.
Family tree:
Family relations among my sims are sometimes a little complicated, as Robert Bråge only has half-brothers, and his brothers again have each their half sister (not included in this tree, because they are not related to Robert Bråge directly...).
As this day began, the birthday child was sleeping in his bed at his and Ranveig (and Oliver Freddys home) at Mosquite Cove, dreaming of one his favorite thing in the world..the outdoors..
Ranveig, the hopeless romantic with two failed relationships behind her, did what she usually does on her days off.. wake up and turn on the romance channel... And just like with her sister Monica, this is actually the first time I see Ranveig in her sleepwear.. Before she used to always sleep in her swimsuit. In fact, her swimsuit was her favourite outfit for most occasions, except for when she was actually swimming, go figure...
..but she is also quite the wonder woman, doing really well in her journalism career, battling her inner demons while fulfilling her goal in life to become a Legend in the world of chess, and being a good mom raising two children all on her own..
Ranveig is no doubt really proud of her achievements as a top ranked chess player, but her biggest pride and joy in life is her sons. She would do anything for them, and with her oldest son at university studying science, she has academic hopes for her youngest one as well..
..and though he has of late taken up an interest in writing science fiction, so far the outdoors is where he says he belongs.. He's not the biggest fan of school, and would rather go swim in the ocean than do his homework. However, mom insists, no swimming before all the homework is done! Luckily for him, the genius trait have been passed down through the generations from his grandma and his mom, so his homework is usually done almost in no time, and he almost always gets an A in school..
So mom lets him off the hook, and won't push him to hard. She doesn't want him to grow tired of school, but she's not giving up her hopes of him going to university one day too... Besides, his interest in outdoor living is a golden ticket to somewhere down the road perhaps make him interested in learning about the natural sciences, so instead she promises once again that they'll go fishing later in the pond by the science center..
..but when he asks about her regular visits to the doctors office with aunt Monica and cousin Lise Veronica, she becomes silent. He knows what it is though, he has read the description on her pill box in the medicine cabinet... but he still has lots of questions. Since both his mom, his brother, his grandmother, his cousin, and even both of his uncles seem to have it.. he wonders, is he going to get it too? Ranveig doesn't know the answer to that question, but she sure hopes he doesn't.. The truth is that he can get it, and as such the periods around age transitions are always a little nerve wrecking.. Is he going to inherit it? Or is he not?
Ranveig didn't want to think to much about that now, and decided to distract herself by heading outside to do a solid workout instead..
Robert Bråge finished a plate of moms french toast for his late breakfast, before he went outside to practice some different openings on the chess table. Ranveig never encouraged him directly to follow in her footsteps to become a chess player, but since he both has the genius trait and his seen her play and all the prices she has won, it has still inspired him to see if he can make it too. And what can be better for the outdoors loving wonderchild than to practice chess out in the open air?
Robert Bråge is similar to both his parents in many ways, and as such isn't one to rest on his laurels. The young mind is already full of ideas, and though he is currently only 12 years old, he has already started writing his first science fiction novel. He writes a few more pages which he sends in to the publisher, which rewards him the standard sum of 15 simoleons for the job.
Ranveig was upstairs watching kids cartoons on tv, when it was time to invite people for his birthday party.
Guest list
Margrethe Holm-Fredriksen (age: 14 yrs.) - friend
Morten Kråke-Karlsen (age: 12 yrs.) - friend
Bjørn-Yngve Kråke-Motorsen (12 yrs.) - cousin
Kleopatra Motor-Karlsen (14 yrs.) - cousin
Eirin Motorsen (68 yrs.) - grandmother
Ingmar Motorsen (70 yrs.) - grandfather
Kristina Reppe (14 yrs.) - friend
Bjørn Sveum (child, exact age unknown) – friend
Leni Wennewold (child, exact age unknown) – friend
Guests were invited/sorted by social relation (minus the grandparents, they had to be invited either way).
Then it was time to prepare for the party. Ranveig hung up some lights outside, hoping that the weather would hold up. With this many people, she thought it would be to cramped to celebrate inside.. and of course, she went out and bought a birthday cake, a buffet table and ordered pizza.. and went outside to pick up this flamingo, even though it was already standing upright. Just in case.
Then she went upstairs and cleaned the toilet, before going downstairs again to turn on some music, just in time for the first guest to arrive..
..and the first guest is.. a complete stranger. I have never seen this woman before, but her name is Anna Furulund.. She probably knows of the family and somehow heard of the party, but she isn't on top of their friends list. Maybe she is a new inhabitant of the town, just looking to make some new friends.. well, I suppose, and why not? :P
Bjørn Sveum, one of Roberts friends from school is next. Another person whom I don't really know all that well, but atleast I have seen him before, so he's not a total stranger. He was also invited to Lise Veronicas party.
Then comes the grandparents, Ingmar and Eirin. Roberts other set of grandparents (Jørund and Leonora on his fathers side) werent invited, because they live in a different town further to the north called. An old mining town called Dole Plains, right by the Appaloosian Mountains.
The next guest is Margrethe Holm-Fredriksen, a friend of the family and the daughter of Ranveigs ex, Fredrik Holm-Fredriksen. She comes along with a random stray dog and the pizza delivery.
Margrethe is quickly followed by Kleopatra Motor-Karlsen (Roberts cousin) and Kristina Reppe (a friend of the family).
Then comes Bjørn-Yngve and Lise Veronica (both cousins). Lise Veronica is a little bummed she didn't get an invitation... "..I thought we were family? How come Kristina was invited, and not me?"
Iselin Reppe, Kristinas mother (in the pink/purple hoodie) also shows up uninvited, and it looks like she has neglected her own personal hygiene.. Grandma Eirin smells this, and finds it so appalling, she almost leaves the party, but luckily she changes her mind shortly before going off the edge of the lot..
"She should've showered before she got here, but I can't leave my grandchilds birthday party just because of one smelly guest..."
Ranveig picks up and serves the pizza, while people gather in groups, some inside and some outside the house.
Then finally Morten has arrived as the second last of the invited guests to show up. Leni Wennewold showed up some time later, but by then there were already many things going on at once, so I missed it.
----
Another uninvited guest is this guy, Hogne Nielsen, inappropriately flirting with the new unknown woman, Anna Furulund. I don't like it, and it makes me think Ingrid should find a better boyfriend.. after all, Ingrid is one of the sims I care about, not these random people.
Well, anyway, not the clock is there, and it's time for the major event.
Lise Veronica, Kleopatra and the stray dog joins in. Robert Bråge doesn't really want to wait, so he makes a wish before deciding to blow out the candles.. No time to wait for mom..
..but then Ranveig finally shows up, after she managed to escape a conversation with the smelly Iselin Reppe.
Ranveig is happy that her son has already become a genius, now she just hopes he doesn't get the unfortunate trait of the family. There is still a chance that he can inherit it, either directly from Ranveig or that it will be passed on from his grandmother (but still through Ranveig).
Sim genealogy
The likelihood of inheriting a trait increases of both a grandparent and a parent has the same trait, and likewise, it would increase again if both parents have the trait, and so on...
In Robert Bråges case, there is a total of 17 unique traits he can inherit from his parents and grandparents on both sides. The total trait slots from all of his parents/grandparents are 30, but since many traits are shared, there are only 17 unique ones. Excluding the three traits he already has, that narrows it down to 14 inheritable traits, on 21 different trait slots.
However, traits inherited directly from parents has twice the probability of being inherited, compared to traits from his grandparents, so in practice it will be in this case 14 traits on 29 slots (parents slots are counted twice). I hope you're still with me....
'The unfortunate trait' is found in his grandmother and mother, though now passive in his mother since she went to the doctor, which means the likelihood fo getting that trait would be 3 out of 29, or just a little over 10 percent. So there is a chance, but not to high...
"Oooh... here we go..."
"Heeey, this is almost like snowboarding..."
"Well... this is me now, I hope you like it...."
Robert Bråge didn't get the lucky trait, but he was still lucky, as he inherited the charismatic trait found in both his mom, Ranveig, his grandmother Eirin, and his grandfather Jørund, so he had a higher chance of getting that one (4 out of 29 or roughly 14 %).
Hooray! Time for cake!
Ranveig can breathe a little easier now, as her youngest son, atleast so far, hasn't inherited 'the unfortunate trait', as she chooses to stand by herself eating her cake.. "Hmm, there was one thing I forgot.. to have enough sitting space for everyone, but it's ok.. I can stand over here, and I'll try to remember it next time.."
Robert Bråge practices his new found charisma by telling a funny story to grandpa.
Ranveig complains to her mom about having to do the dishes, with so many guests over at the house eating..
..but Eirin doesn't offer her daughter to much sympathy, and commands her to start cleaning up right away. A mother will always be a mother. It doesn't matter that Ranveig is 45 years old and has achieved most of her life goals already, which includes having two children of her own... Mom still isn't finished raising her child!
..but just like Ranveig is proud of her sons, Eirin is also very proud of her oldest daughter Ranveig, and her achievements. She knows her daughter has had a pretty hard life, and that only makes her more proud.
Downstairs Lise Veronica is showing off her smooth chicken dance moves by dancing with Hogne Nielsen, before she goes outside to discuss her favorite food with her aunt Ranveig. :P
"My favorite is grilled salmon. What's yours?"
"Surprise stew has always been my favorite, ever since I was a child."
The mood is pleasant, until Lise Veronica shows her mean side..
"Surprise stew? Ha! What a stupid low grade dish! Is that all you can make? You're stupid!"
Ranveig: Whoa...
Ranveig: You need to learn to watch your mouth, there! You can't just call people stupid like that out of the blue! Keep this up, and I'll have a word with your mom....
Yeah, Lise Veronica sometimes is a handful to deal with.. she'll probably grow out of this with time, lets hope... She seems quite unlike her girlfriend Kristina, which is much nicer, because instead of being offensive, she just helped out doing dishes inside, and even took out the trash.. now that's a good guest!
Why can't everyone be sweet like you? :P
It's still early in the evening, but the party is coming to an end soon. The uninvited lady (and the stray dog) has already left, and now grandfather Ingmar is also leaving, along with Kristinas mother Iselin, and Bjørn Sveum, one of Roberts friends from school. The verdict from everyone is really positive, though, and this party has been most enjoyable.
Ranveig has squared it up with Lise Veronica outside. Threatening to tell Monica made her calm down.. She didn't want mom to come pick her up again.
Not trying to paint a bad picture of Lise Veronica, she is a nice girl too a lot of the time, but she definately is quite sassy on occasion as well. Her cousin Kleopatra in the back there probably isn't a saint all the time either, for her own reasons... but atleast everyone has really enjoyed the party so far.
Robert Bråge eventually got tired of aging up, and went to bed almost remarkably early. Well, I guess celebrating ones birthday can be a little exhausting. Then I thought it was only Ranveig, her mother, Leni, Morten and Bjørn-Yngve (he's outside on the porch playing with a toy) left, until Margrethe suddenly comes walking down the stairs.
She is usually not among the most reclusive, yet she had snuck away to watch tv upstairs after the candles got blown out. So I forgot about her for a while, but hey, looks like she had fun too.
The kids eventually leave, and now it's only Ranveig and her mother Eirin still left inside. Ranveig then asks her mom for a hand with the dishes and cleaning up, but then she remembers that her husband is at home, probably waiting for her, so..
"... I had a really good time, but sorry, I gotta go..."
Ranveig enjoys some quiet time by herself eating her favorite meal, before she prepares herself to clean up everything and unleash a metaphorical meteor strike to send home Bjørn Yngve, that appears to have gotten stuck in the jurassic period still playing with the dinosaur toy on the porch...
When she walks around cleaning the house, it has finally quieted down enough so that she can hear water running from somewhere, and that's usually not a good sign.. She locates the source in the bathroom upstairs. Of course, someone clumsy had just managed to break the bathroom sink..
..but luckily Ranveig is pretty handy, just like her sister Monica, so she fixes the sink all on her own without calling for someone to repair it, and decides to upgrade to be come unbreakable while she's at it..
Phew! It's been a long day for Ranveig, but finally at two in the night she gets her well deserved rest too.. good night.
Now prepare yourself for another birthday, because only five days later (on the sims timeline) the toy dinosaur paleontologist child Bjørn Yngve will have his 13th birthday and Sunset Valley will get yet another teenager...
Sub blogs: #01 Sunset Valley. #02: Lake Onebega #03: Sprottenham #04: Bewickton
This is the second to last teenage birthday for Sunset Valley this year, as the next one won't be until October (on their timeline) when it's Mortens turn to enter his 13th year. However, there will be two more birthdays before then where a couple of toddlers will age up to children, the next one already next month... With so many birthdays, maybe I should go a little easier on them and not dedicate an entire update for each persons birthday, yet I do feel that these are significant events that should be marked properly. Hmm. Oh well, here we go..
Sim profile:
Full name: Bjørn-Yngve Kråke-Motorsen
Date of birth: March 22nd , 2010.
Personality traits: Easily impressed, genius, inappropriate.
Family tree:
---
Bjørn-Yngves family lives in this house on 378 Skyborough Boulevard. In my language the adress is Himmelstien 378 which would directly translate to "Heavenly Path 378", hence back in the day the town council thought it to be appropriate to build a new graveyard on an empty lot close by their house..
Heavenly Path Graveyard and Mausoleum, 415 Skyborough Blvd. The mausoleum houses the urnstones of all the sims that have died so far and everytime I see it, it reminds me of the most depressing moment of me playing the sims.. Early on, I played rotationally and with aging off, which meant that I had to make the rounds and take on the role of the grim reaper himself to make sure that everyone who was supposed to die, did so when their time was up... I wept internally for each and every one of them....
Since the family lives so close to the graveyard, it's inevitable that certain eerie sounds accompanied by music is heard during the night.. so I found it natural to follow these sounds and hang out at the graveyard, while waiting for the family to wake up, which resulted in the recording seen above..
The sound of ghosts isn't the only thing heard in the night, because as I check up on this family, they all have a recent bad memory of their house being burgled.. I look around to see if anything is missing, but I can't see anything. I don't have a full overview of every item in their house, so something migh be gone, but I couldn't figure out what it was.
So I just assume that it wasn't anything important, and carry on...
Helene is the first one to wake up, to take care of Anton, and stroll around at home in her underwear. Helene is a bit of a snob that values appearance (to the outside world), but when she is at home with just her family she relaxes a lot more and shows her true self. :P
Bjørn-Yngve wakes up next, and goes into his mom's writing den to cheer excitedly. Helene is also a creative person that enjoys writing, painting and photography. This could be why he is cheering, but I think it's more him being excited about playing king on the chair, like kids always do..
Helene used to work at the day spa, before it became possible to sign up to various freelance jobs for the more ambitions minded sims, and as such she doesn't have fixed work hours, which just allows her to chill in her underwear a little longer..
Not the same for Bjørn-Yngve and her husband Knut, that have to get up and ready for work and school. Knut has gone into the kitchen to prepare breakfast, before going to work at the town hall. The only reason for him working in the politcal career is so that he can take advantage of his charismatic personality and strategic mind.. His real life goal, however, was simply to max out his skills in handiness and logic, which he has already achieved.
The boys eating breakfast. (I wanted to show this one, since they ate at the same time. Of course, they can't sit at the same table... yet...)
Then Bjørn-Yngve hops on the school bus for his last day at school as a 12 year old and an elementary school pupil. Helene and Knut eat their breakfast, and Helene has to subtly ask Knut when he will get his next pay rise, so that she can buy more expensive things for the house..
"Helene, that's not how it works.. I can't ask for a pay rise all the time. I already got one last month..! Besides, I'm a politician... we have to show some restraint, or people might start protesting or even rioting....and we don't really want that..."
Then it's off to work for Knut. Showing restraint or not, he's got a pretty fancy ride, though. A 2016 Lexus IS 350 F Sport to be excact.. fitting for a guy with Motorsen as his last name.
Helene spends the day finishing up the job of teaching Anton talk, ensuring that he learns all the important things of course. Repeat after me... "Daddy has a really fancy red car, and all the neighbours are really impressed...."
"Don't be afraid of the ghosts you hear at night, they're just people that once used to live in town, just like you and me..."
After finishing the job of teaching him to talk, she goes upstairs to the balcony to finish a painting she started a good while ago, as well as increasing her painting skills. One step towards her goal of mastering painting and writing..
Then it's time to invite everyone for the birthday party. She insists that they wear their finest clothing, jewelry and sparkling diamonds if they have.. let's make it a sparkling party to impress the neighbours and have everyone talking for weeks.
Guest list:
Ingrid Kråke-Karlsen (21 yrs, cousin)
Morten Kråke-Karlsen (12 yrs, cousin)
Egil Kråkesen (71 yrs, grandfather mothers side)
Frida Kråkesen (66 yrs, grandmother mothers side)
Lise Veronica Motor-Notesen (13 yrs, cousin)
Eirin Motorsen (68 yrs, grandmother fathers side)
Ingmar Motorsen (70 yrs, grandfather fathers side)
Robert Bråge Motorsen (13 yrs, cousin)
Kristina Reppe (14 yrs, friend).
PS: Eveyone is given the title they have in relation to the birthday child, e.g. When someone is called grandfather throughout this update, that's because they are Bjørn-Yngves grandfather, not necessarily the grandfather of whomever else they might interact with.
Bjørn-Yngve is still at school and won't be home for some hours more, as he also has to attend the boy scouts. This leaves plenty of time for the parents to decorate and clean up the place to make it as shiny as possible.. can't have these kids toys lying around all over the place...
The first guest to arrive is this lady, Valborg Ulstein. She is one of the maids in town. Since my storyline of playing Sunset Valley began in 1977, the original maids Kate Pistachio and Grady Elfman have since retired. Their whereabouts are unknown, if they are even still alive. Well, anyway, this new maid first greets Helene with a friendly smile, before going into a small fit of rage. I'm not sure why, because Helene just cleaned the house! Or maybe that's the problem, because this family doesn't have a maid service.. or maybe she's angry they were throwing a party and she wasn't invited...
The next guest is of a much friendlier nature. Kristina Reppe is probably the least likely of all Sunset Valley inhabitants to actually get angry about something. Even as a teenager, she's just super nice and easy going.
Then comes grandpa Egil. An ambitious snob and retired CEO of the TelComNor foundation that was founded by his father again in the early 1940s. Hs father worked really hard back in the day to get the company going, and it was his business ideas that slowly brought the Kråkesen family from rags to riches. Though Egil was once set to take over the reigns of the company, his father wanted to teach his son the value of hard work, just like he had to, and as such he didn't get a free ride to the top just because he was the son of the companys founder.. When Egil finally took over leadership of the company in 2008, after his father passed away, he began work to make the company an international success, furthering the wealth of the family, of course, greatly helped by his wifes success as an author and later career as a professional athlete, that is.
And here is his wife, Frida Kråkesen, as the fourth guest, along with her grandchild Ingrid, and recent birthday child Robert Bråge. Frida is nowhere near as snobby as her husband or youngest daughter Helene, or her grandchild Ingrid.. Bjørn-Yngve is also seen just having arrived home from the boy scouts. He stands there for a while, watching the influx of people, before he decides to do his homework on the front porch.. He's not absent minded like his mom and grandma, but still.. it looks like he doesn't quite understand that all these guests are there because of him.
Then comes his cousin and Ingrids younger brother Morten, and he seems to have some reason to not be satisfied with grandma, and honestly, I don't know why... I would probably need to have either household as actives to begin to figure out what this is about...
Lise Veronica follows next, and this time she has prepared a meal. It's just a salad, but it's not that long ago since she was just a 12 year old too, so this is fine.
I wasn't sure if George would show up, since he completely ditched Roberts party, but here he is now. He probably just forgot about time on Roberts birthday, because he was at the library reading. :P
And then last (for now), comes grandma Eirin alone, because grandpa Ingmar found it more important to be playing bass in the park.. and Bjørn-Yngve figures out his next move, which is to do homework. :P
People gather inside talking, and this might be another reason why the maid is angry with Helene. She seems to have a liking for her husband Knut, and is not shy of letting him know. Knut is wise and makes no advances and nothing more happens between them for the remainder of the party, except everyday conversations.
Grandma Frida is the first one to start the party by dancing on her own in the dining room and a later thought bubble from her revealed that she has been enjoying a few drops of that juice before showing up at her grandchilds birthday party.. no wonder she's in such a good mood, but really grandma, come on! :P
Guess I should have seen this coming... Lise Veronicas friendly demeanor didn't last that long, and she's already insulting the host...
..but one that she would never insult, I hope, is her girlfriend Kristina. Realizing that it won't be to fruitful to continue talking to Helene for a while, she quickly moves over to hand her flowers. Grandfather Egil stands to the left and watches the seance..
He nods and smiles at the girls, but inside he's a little torn... "One girl giving flowers to another girl as a romantic gesture? My oh my... things weren't like that in my youth...."
Now, Egil might have a conservative way of viewing the world, but he's not dumb.. Back in the day in his youth, when he was their age in the latter half of the 1960s, a time when the fight for equal rights for homosexuals was still in it's early stage and it was still risky to be publicly open as a gay person, much more so than it is today... and being a teenager looking to find your place in the world certainly wouldn't make it easier... Egil never really had that struggle though, as he has always been most interested in the opposite sex, but he was still shaped by the times, the pressure among his peers to fit in, and even more so the views of his own parents. In particular those of his father that would have a tendency to lean towards a rather strict upbringing for his own children...
..but that was long ago, and it was far away and Egil doesn't want to be that man, so he does his best, though a little clumsily, to engage in friendly chatter with the girls. Kristina immediately gives the old man the benefit of the doubt. Lise Veronica isn't as accepting and thinks he's being an awkward old fool as she gives him a sly look...
Ah.. but then finally Bjørn-Yngve finished his homework and realized it's his birthday before putting on his finest wear! Mom probably picked that one out, and it doesn't look like the kind of suit to wear while playing outside... but it will sure impress everyone when they see what a classy young gentleman her son is.. right?
Make a wish.
Hooray for Bjørn-Yngve, aging up with perfect grades!
Oh.. oh..
"Well look at you!" Ingrid is amazed of her 'new' cousin. :P
Bjørn-Ynge inherits the charismatic trait from his father (Knut) and grandmother (Eirin).
Then it's time for.. cake and salad, and the grandparents, Egil, Frida and Eirn mentally gang up on Bjørn-Yngves father Knut.. Especially Frida (in the middle) is very displeased and loudly lets everyone know... he's just so inappropriate. Not dressing up propertly, and pointing and laughing at his own son.. "You're such a disgrace of a father!"
Knut couldn't care less though, as he leaves the party behind to go upstairs to get banned from yet another internet forum...
The guests chaotically gather around the table eating their food of choice in their own way, when Lise Veronica has something to say.. "Something smells in here.. it smells like trash.."
Frida jumped a little at the mention of the word 'smell'.. "Can they smell I've been drinking? Oh.. I hope not. Of course they can't.. it's probably the smelly plate over there... I have to say something about it, so that they won't think it's me.."
Frida: Oh, yeah, hehe.. it's probably.. hehe, it's probably those dirty dishes over there...
Helene: Oh, sorry about that! I'll take care of it right away!
"How embarrassing.. I can't have a party with smelly dishes all over the place.. what will people think? I should have paid more attention.. I hope this won't hurt my social standing..."
<
Bjørn-Yngve is perhaps the best behaved person at the party. He really doesn't make much of himself, just calmly sitting there observing everyone and eating his cake.. Frida is booing at Ingmar for having the wrong attire. Ingmar often comes of as inappropriate sometimes to the point of being rude, though there usually isn't much thought behind any of it.. and that is the problem. Ingmar is the most absent minded of anyone here. Always lost in his own thoughts, he's usually not present anywhere, even if he is. :P
The rest of the party continues with more eating, dancing and booing at each other. Lise Veronica is showing off some of her moves in the front here. Eirin asks Egil how things are at the office. Egil has retired from his postion as a CEO, but he is still on the board of directors and still attends weekly meetings. The company is his life, and he just couldn't leave it completely...
The uninvited town maid Valborg has really enjoyed her stay, and thinks its time to head home. Ingmar is probably thinking the same... all these parties with all these people he has to attend all the time, when he would be much happier just spending time at home, all alone...
Well, grandpa Ingmar finds an excuse to leave the party behind for a while, as he comes to think about the little man upstairs. The youngest member of the family Anton just woke up from having slept through most of the day, so grandpa is on the spot to let him out so he can go play with his toy box.
Downstairs Kristina has gone to slow dance with Robert. Lise Veronica either hasn't noticed, or doesn't care, because she's still happily dancing along by herself in the dining room. :P
Looks like the party is approaching it's end, as Bjørn-Yngve decides to go to bed and some of the kids downstairs are leaving. Well, good night, I hope you enjoyed your birthday.
Ingrid goes to play some video games with grandpa on the couch, before he calls it a night and goes home too.
Finally with most of the guests out of the house, Helene loosens up a little and finds some time to dance as well. Eirin teases her about it.. "Sensational news! Helene danced at her own party! Read all about it in todays edition of the Sunset Valley Gazette!" (Eirins daughter Ranveig works as a journalist, so a quick phone call after she gets home might actually result in this happening... :P)
The elders were the ones that held out the longest at this party, as Frida, Eirin and Ingmar were the last ones to leave. Helene can sleep well and need not to worry about any rumours or loss of social standing as everyone really enjoyed this party and will only have positive things to say about it.
Good night.
Sub blogs: #01 Sunset Valley. #02: Lake Onebega #03: Sprottenham #04: Bewickton
It's back to the beachfront houses again, because just across the street from Motor-Notesen familys home lives the Motor-Karlsen family.. with another family member whose birthday is coming up soon.
The one to age up soon is this young fellow, Walter Motor-Karlsen. A relatively unwritten page so far, as he has mostly just made an appearance here and there because he had to for various family photos.. :P And of course, he's not sleeping, but wide awake..
These are his parents, Sofie and Eivind Motor-Karlsen. His mother Sofie appears to have developed an uncanny ability to sleep with not just one, but both of her eyes wide open... on high alert, in case her toddler should need something perhaps? Or something else should happen? Or maybe she's in a state of sleep paralysis... Hmm, interesting...
She looks a lot more relaxed whenever she is hugged by her husband (or vice versa), but as soon as he turns away, her eyes are wide open again...
----
Her husband, Eivind, aspires to be an astronaut, and as such he has chosen a career with the military (which means he is the first one that has to wake up because his job starts early). He really hopes to achieve his goal of viewing the Simtopian Planet from space.. They're not just sending anyone out there, one has to pass rigorous health examinations, and of course, be in perfect physical (and mental) condition. He's not that far away from his goal, as he's already flying high as a jet fighter pilot on level 9 of his career. Well, he certainly has his physical condition under control, so that shouldn't pose a problem..
Starting the day with a healthy salad. Must not gain to much weight... Now, Eivind is the brother of both Monica and Ranveig (and the son of Eirin), and as such he has also inherited the same, err, mental affliction, but since he made it so far in his military career, it can't be that bad for him..
On his way to work, he exited through the balcony door, because they had just finished expanding the house with another new bedroom for Walter, which meant moving around a few things.. and somehow the builders had forgotten to put the front porch stairs back in place... they realized their mistake a little later, and came back to fix it just before Kleopatra, the teenage daughter of the house, had to go to school...
Kleopatra can often be a little grumpy, if not downright hot-headed, but it looks like she wakes up with a good mood today... Good morning.
Well, it was a good morning.. until she went upstairs to have breakfast and heard the sound of her younger brother crying..
In the meantime, Sofie had woken up to the same sound, but she wasn't grumpy about it, like I expected her to.. Instead her sons crying made her think of band aids, but no one had suffered any injury here.. He was just hungry, so it was good...
Sofie thought about the birthday gift she wanted to buy for Walter, as she went into the kitchen to prepare breakfast for herself..
Cooking is one of Sofies favorite things, something she had to teach herself early, when she lived at home with her dad and older brother Jonathan... With her mom absent from the household, she sort of took on the role as the mother of the house, and decided to do the cooking after she had enough of her fathers burnt toast.... Sofie didn't really know what a mom was until she became one herself... but that's all in the rear view mirror..
Sofie started her career as a teenager working in the vegetable section at the local grocery store (so many interesting ingredients..), before she got a job right across the street at the Corsican Bistro once she became a young adult. Sofie takes great pride in her cooking skills, and all of the recipes that she has memorized.. She is definately a walking library of culinarity.. :P
Kleopatra uses the front porch staircase to go to school... An expanded section of the hallway and Walters new bedroom is behind her, above the entrance to their new garage that they also built in the basement of the house.
Translation of pop-up: "We have so much in common. I would like to get to know you better."
Someone is throwing curled paper balls torn from their notebook at Kleopatra from the back of the classroom making a romantic advance on Kleopatra when she is in school. I think his name is Otto Hillestad, son of Haldis Hillestad. She is a single mom living with her son in the lot called The Cormorant at 180 Wright Way. I don't know much about this family, I have only seen them around town occasionally. If Otto is serious and not just being a teenage dir.. uhmm... goofball, maybe we'll learn more about them eventually. :P (..and perhaps they'll hang out and listen to medieval torture instrument music Iron Maiden, maybe..)
With Eivind and Kleopatra out of the house, Sofie and Walter would spend some time on the couch in their sleepwear playing video games and watching the cooking channel...
..until Walter gets tired and has to sleep.
Then Sofie goes back to playing computer games, with the cooking channel still on in the background. :P
Eivind gets home from work and wants to upgrade the computer in their bedroom, but it's broken so he has to repair it first.. His attempt of doing so is unsuccessful, and when it zaps him, he decides to call a professional to do the job instead...
Kleopatra returns home from school, and Sofie wants to go fishing to catch some fresh ingredients for her cooking.. She waits for the weather to clear up, but it doesn't seem to want to, as it pretty much just rained all day..
Kleopatra is inspired by her mom and wants to learn the cooking skill, so she goes to make the most advanced thing she knows.. hot dogs.
"Hmmm... how long should these be in here?"
Still haven't gotten her first skill point, she tries to step it up a notch by making tofu hot dogs this time..
Sofie notices her daughters cooking, but doesn't say much about it. "It's better she experiments in the kitchen, instead of being out doing mischief... I don't want to see my daughter turn into another case of wasted youth... but really, do we need all these hot dogs?"
Kleopatra isn't done cooking, however, as she moves on to make macaroni and cheese. :P Probably the most simple dish anyone can make, but atleast it serves a purpose and she obtains the skill point that she wanted.
Kristina, Kleopatras classmate and friend, has also been out improving her skills, as she just reached level 4 in writing...
Kristinas older sister Inge better watch her back now, Kristina is gaining on her!
Kleopatra eats a bowl of her macaroni and cheese while spending some time watching the cooking channel, when she thinks of another skill she wants to learn.. and she knows just the place to do it..
Kleopatra: I'm heading out mom! I'll go bowling with uh.. Margrethe and some other friends.
Sofie: Ok, have fun and don't be out to late.. I suppose you've already done your homework?
Kleopatra: Yes, mom.. todays homework was really easy, I finished it at school already....
Liar liar! Kleopatra doesn't go bowling at all...and she hasn't as much as looked at her homework.. instead she goes to the rebel hangout, for one specific reason..
She has heard that if she goes to the Youngmob cafeteria on the first floor and talk to the man behind the counter, she can buy a starter street art kit.. and if she buys an energy drink with it, she'll even get a special discount.
It's illegal in the Kingdom of Simbria to sell energy drinks to anyone below the age of 16, but the cafeteria employee didn't excactly ask her age, and he probably didn't care about breaking the rules either... and neither does Kleopatra, as long as mom and dad doesn't find out.. :P
Energized by the energy drink, she goes into the cafeteria bathroom to practice another skill.. The police, if they found out, would usually frown upon this kind of activity, however, the rebel hangout is governed by kids and young adults with a more... anarchistic way of thinking... and so they allow their guests to practice and pretty much do what they want, as long as they are not actively actually destroying something..
Wish granted.
It's not a very advanced piece, she could do with a little more practice, but Kleopatra is still happy to have left her mark. - in Chuck Berry red.
And now, energized by her recent work of art, she ran up to the second floor of the building where she met someone I wasn't expecting her to find there...
Her aunt Helene... I'm not sure how hanging out at the rebel hangout is gonna help with her social standing..
..or maybe that's not so important when there's an opportunity to brag about her husbands red sports vehicle.. their very own paradise by the dashboard light...
That is of course the stupidest thing Kleopatra has ever heard, and just as quickly as she made a new friend in her aunt, she lost one again...
..but she was still energized by the drink, and kept on doing what she came there for, to dance throughout the night, as she watched Lisa Bunch set a strange example of flirting with elderly..
She kept dancing until suddenly the energy ran out, and she decided to head home, with almost perfect timing, only a short moment after the curfew came into effect..
..where she could creep in the shadows and sneak into bed without anyone noticing...
...as mommy and daddy was sleeping in the moonlight. Good night.
Sub blogs: #01 Sunset Valley. #02: Lake Onebega #03: Sprottenham #04: Bewickton
'Chain Reaction' - Edwin Dolinski (Sim City 4 soundtrack).
Alright, brace yourself for another birthday party, because this time it's Walters turn.. After this ine though, there won't be anyone transitioning to the next age group for a good while. :P
Sim profile:
Full name: Walter Motor-Karlsen
Date of birth: April 14th , 2017.
Personality traits: Easily impressed, insane.
Family tree:
--
Now before we can really start.. I like that the first thing I see is Kleopatra dreaming about evading the police.
Eivind is the first to wake up, because of his sleeping schedual that is adjusted to his work hours. He is happy and excited to pick up his son and let him out of the crib.."Happy birthday, Walter! Today is gonna be a special day for you..."
Both Eivind and Sofie have the day off today, perfect for preparing to celebrate Walters birthday. Walter walks into the bathroom to play with the toilet... and Eivind decides to spend the quiet early morning moment upgrading the computer, to prevent it from breaking again... Sofie has some interesting dreams in the back there.. "No, no fighting... please, don't fight..."
Sofie was only a toddler when she overheard her parents fighting from the room next door, the day before their divorce.. The situation had built up steadily for a while, with their fighting constantly getting louder and louder until it exploded that one day and the fists came out..
Her older brother Jonathan wasn't at home when it happened. Since he was a child and had the option to move around a lot more freely than Sofie, he rarely was, and with good reason.. Home wasn't a particularly good place to be then for a while..
And it all started when Asgeir, their father, was invited over to his neighbours house for a barbecue.. Egil had something to tell him, something the entire town knew, except Asgeir.. that Lucie was having an affair at work, with Beau Andrews.. and Beau was still married to Victoria! Another marriage that went south shortly thereafter...
When Sofie wakes up, she's not feeling to well and she wants to spend some time on her own. She goes to pick up Walter from the bathroom and place him on the bedroom floor alongside his dad, still working to upgrade the computer, before she tells him she'll head out to Bjerkedammen (Pinochle Pond) to go fishing for a while..
Over the years, the town council have upgraded several of the lots around town. The cabin in the background was built in the early 1990s, and it features beds, a small bathroom and a dining area, as well as a barbecue grill and a park bench outside. And it's free to use for all Sunset Valley residents, all year round.
Sofie has another idea with going fishing. She wants to catch a fish using live bait, and then prepare a meal later using that fish.. but first, she has to catch the bait... there is a wild salad plant growing on the edge of the lot, where she can go to harvest salad to use as bait until then..
She stands there trying her luck all the way until sunrise, until finally she gets her bait, a gold fish. Sofie doesn't know it, but she reminds me a lot of her mom after she got kicked out of the house following the divorce, because this is excactly what Lucie used to do back then, to go fishing. Lucie never visited the house afterwards and her father never spoke any of her, so Sofie never really got to know her mom until she became a young adult and moved out on her own.
While Sofie is up there fishing and catches another fish, a kissing gouramis, using the gold fish as bait Kleopatra wakes up and she looks really sad too. This looks like a bad morning for the ladies of the household..
I didn't catch the moment when Sofie caught the kissing gouramis, since I watched Kleopatra get out of bed to eat breakfast, but I can only assume that Sofie was really happy, as it fulfilled her wish of doing so.
Sadness returned to her face though, as she packed up her fishing rod and decided to head back home..
Kleopatra was already on the school bus by the time she walked in the door. This didn't look like a good day at all for Sofie..
Maybe some housework would distract her from bad thoughts (She is used to that..)
It was excursion day for the kids at school, as they were heading up to the mausoleum at the Pleasent Rest graveyard, and look who sat down next to Kleopatra.. I can't tell if she enjoys this or not, though, but someone definately finds her interesting...
Running towards the mauseloum. Running ahead of her is her cousin Bjørn-Yngve that had his birthday party last month.
Back home Sofie was watching the romance channel with Walter, when he told her in his own way he was getting tired and wanted to go to bed..
He needs the rest so he can be awake for his birthday party later. Putting him to sleep changes the look on Sofies face and she finally smiles a little..
..but it doesn't take long before she's back to muttering and feeling grumpy again as Eivind walks over because he wants to give her a hug. It's spring, things are floating in the air, and love day is soon coming up...
Sofie rewards him with a small kiss on the mouth, before they have a friendly conversation about the former national league football player Hillmund Norzing that went on an expedition to climb the Simalayan mountains where he unfortunately came across a yeti (allegedly) on the way down and uh.. well... after which Sofie likens it to an almost fictional story before she continues to flirt with Eivind.
The mood is all fine and good until Eivinds demons 'finally' succeeds in overcoming his willpower to get the better of him, and he delivers an inappropriate critisicm of their son..
..which unfortunately doesn't end well, and they go each their seperate ways and doesn't really talk to each other for a while. Apart from when they have to cooperate to invite guests and decorate for the upcoming birthday, neither of which seem to heighten Sofies mood much..
Being grumpy or sometimes in a bad mood is something Sofie has inherited from her father. So it happens from time to time that she's not excactly feelling like she's on top of the world, but this is the first time I've seen her consistently look this sad. Even when she goes to the kitchen to prepare a meal from the kissing gouramis she caught earlier, something that she wishes to do.
..but we'll get through this day, even if it feels like a bit of a drag. Atleast cooking is still enjoyable. I'm also sure you can square it out with your husband later, I mean, you've already been married for longer than your parents were...
See, Sofie, that looks nice! A perfectly well cooked meal of Dim Sum with a fresh fish from this morning as a main ingredient!
Sofie: Oh.. atchoo...!
"Of course I just had to sneeze all over it.. guess I won't be serving this one to the guests, I don't want to be responsible for someone dying from eating my food... is this the day where everything is supposed to go wrong? I guess so.... sometimes I wish I could just trade in this lemon of a life and get my money back..."
Whoa there, Sofie.. ! You were just unlucky.. it was probably just some pollen in the air that you made you sneeze.. whatever has happened, in the near or distant past, isn't your fault anyway, there wasn't really anything you could've done about it, so don't be so hard on yourself, ok...? Phew, that was a bit heavy, but we have to move on to more cheerful matters, as your sons birthday party is about to begin soon, and the guests are already on their.. uh..
..well, ladies and gentlemen, there you have it. May I introduce to you Sofies mom that just decided to get married for the second time on her grandsons birthday... the timing couldn't have been better..
Some more guests that are on their way to arrive, from back left to front right (relation to birthday child in paranthesis): Ranveig Motorsen (aunt), Mohamed Khaled (friend of the family), Helene Kråke-Motorsen (aunt), Asgeir Karlsen (grandfather mothers side), Otto Hillestad (he's a stranger to Walter and wasn't invited, but he has Kleopatra as his love interest...), Monica Motor-Notesen (aunt) and Jonathan Kråke-Karlsen (uncle).
Ivar, Monicas husband (in the back talking to Sofie), and the grandparents on the fathers side, Eirin (in the back in the blue swimsuit) and Ingmar (not on this picture), was also invited. Eivind has picked up some rumours about what Kleopatra did just yesterday at the rebel hangout.. He promises not to tell Sofie that she lied to her about bowling, but at the same time he warns her not to get in any trouble with the police...
Especially since Eivind works in the military, he doesn't want a daughter already getting in trouble with the law... "If I catch you again lying to your mom or me and vandalizing public property, I'll have you grounded with no telephone.. you gotta follow my rules when you're in my home... is that understood?"
These grandmothers, I don't know what's up with them.. Grandma Eirin does something I think is wildly inappropriate, handing over flowers to Jonathan. The worst part is, he accepts them like a fool and flirts back...
Well, it could be that grandma Eirin was just being clever, and used her flirting techniques as a way to get to interrogate Jonathan.. She was a retired top level police officer where she worked as a DNA profiler in the forensic specialist branch (her lifetime wish), and was rehired to lead the investigation of a human trafficking case from october last year. Since then they just kept her at the office since they found her so valuable with all her experience.. Well, she certainly has her methods.. they may be a little unethical, but as long as they work...
Then it's time for the main event, and Eivind has gone to wake up Walter and bring him upstairs. This is where the party really begins...
Blow out the candles and make a wish! And feel free to ignore your sister in the background there, she's being stupid... :P
It's time for the big moment! Soon it will happen...
..oh oh... and look at grandma.. It doesn't look like she's there to celebrate her grandson.. she just got married, and now she's there giving flowers to her son-in-law! What is going on with the grandmothers in this town... please...
Not very popular with anyone, and grandpa came around the corner just in time to watch her get rejected, too.. somehow I guess he's not to surprised his ex-wife would do something like that... and now you see why she's an ex-wife...
Also, Walter didn't really feel comfortable in the clothes he ended up aging up in, so he went downstairs to his room to find the dresser and change his outfit into something more comfortable, before he went on to eat cake.
The cake eating sequence always ends up being a bit of a mess, but everyone ends up getting a piece eventually, and Sofie is finally enjoying herself, too. Here she is in a conversation with Ivar about the fishing trip she had this morning.
Walter is probably the smartest of them all, avoiding all the mess around the dining table by immediately going for the sofa.
Not all the guests, such as grandma Eirin or his uncle Jonathan, paid as much attention to Walter aging up as he thinks they should have, so he finds himself walking the round to inform them it's his birthday, so they can congratulate him too.
Sofie is happy her brother Jonathan came to the party, and wants to talk to him, but... he walks away and Sofie is left alone..
"Why does everyone always leave me...?" she thinks, before bitterness takes hold for a while and she mutters a small curse at the world...
..but he's her brother, so why give up so easily? She gives it another shot and follows him inside where they have a friendly conversation about movies and rediscover that they share the good trait... and he tells her to do some cleaning.. just like the old days...
They inherited the good trait from their mom, Lucie, and yes, she is actually a good person.. but she's also very easily impressed and, well, easily swept off her feet by any sweet talking man with noble or sometimes less noble intentions.. Back in the day she had already made quite a lot of money on her medical career, and if you know Beau Andrews, you'll know that his ambition in life is to marry rich like the filthy, lazy gold digger that he is...
One of Walters uncles Ivar is providing some entertainment by playing a song called 'Mechanix', a song he claims he wrote when was working part time at a gas station and garage fixing cars back in the day (in spite of having zero handiness skill when he married Monica...). It was one of the hits, as he called it, from his old band (that he got kicked out of....) I guess he's gotten over the worst of the bitterness of his old band mates could just do something like that to him...
Inside grandma Lucie had joined Walter on the couch to play video games, while his aunt Helene had sat down next to them to enjoy a meal. While playing, Lucie decided to share the good news that she had just gotten married earlier on the same day...
Sofie heard what she said from the dining area and was not very impressed...
Kleopatra walks inside from the balcony where Ivar is still playing his old songs, to finally give her gift to Walter.
"Happy birthday, brother!"
Kleopatra had bought him a football to play with outside, and by football, I of course mean the type of ball used in the game called just that – football. A game where you use your foot to kick a ball in the direction of the opposing teams goal, and where it is illegal to pick up said ball with your hands, because that's not football...
Ivar had finally stopped playing outside, the party was coming to an end and people were starting to find their way home. Bedtime was soon here for Walter as well, so he walked out on the balcony to find grandpa and ask him for a good night story.
Mom, dad and Kleopatra was already asleep as Walter walked past the gift from his mom in the hallway to show grandpa the way to his new room. Grandpa was happy and had all intentions to read for Walter, but then the bell tolled and he decided to go home instead..
He went back upstairs to ask his aunt Monica instead, but she was just about the leave, too. He considered for a second to ask grandma Lucie as she was now the last guest remaining, but figured it wasn't worth it. He was already much to tired after this day, and went straigth to bed..
Shortly thereafter grandma went home to, without even finishing the hot dog she had just started eating, and leaving all the plates for the parents to clean up by tomorrow morning.. and that marked the end of this party...
Good night.
Sub blogs: #01 Sunset Valley. #02: Lake Onebega #03: Sprottenham #04: Bewickton
The first thing I notice when I return to the Motor-Karlsen family is a pair of paparazzis standing on their porch arguing..
"This is my turf, you go get your photos elsewhere!"
Well, excuse me ladies...
The family is having their dreams. Walter (now age 6) looks up to his father and wants a job in the military, but that could change many times over before he finally grows up.
Marriage and being faithful to your partner is important for Sofie.. her dreams this night is much more pleasant than the dreams she had before Walters birthday.. will she wake up in a good mood this morning, or will she still be sad and grumpy?
Eivind dreams about planes.. or anything that's high up in the sky, where his job is.
Picture originally posted in Chapter 17.3 – Sunset Valley – December 2022 part III: Painting on the wall..
Kleopatra dreams of her school trip to the mausoleum. Otto kept flirting with her in the mausoleum, so maybe love is in the air? ..but then she saw a ghost, and that was much more fun, so maybe not... does a flower have an odd or even number of petals? :P
Eivind is, as usual, the first one to get up and eat breakfast among the smelly leftovers from yestermonths birthday party...
..before he goes from computer to computer to post inappropriate things on internet forums.. He has gone to the computer in their bedroom when Sofie wakes up, and yep, this morning she's in a good mood. She's still thinking about fishing trips, and making the bed... Sofie has gotten more of a perfectionist with age, another thing she has inherited from her dad, so she can't leave the bed unfinished..
That is what she ends up doing though, as her husband, as soon as she wakes up, starts to feel romantic and ditches the pointless forum trolling for something much more worthwhile.
Kleopatra wakes up next and a little grumpily, she decides to do the homework she didn't have the time to do yesterday.. Eivind walks upstairs to talk to her about Walters birthday party being an awesome event, to which Kleopatra has a snarky remark about the leftovers that nobody seems interested in cleaning up...
"Well, I don't have time for that, I gotta go to work..."
It's not until Walter wakes up to get ready for his first day of school someone takes responsibility to clean up the dishes... Well, this should make mom and dad happy, shouldn't it?
After he has hopped on the schoolbus, Sofie saves and then quits her computer game downstairs to do some much needed laundry. Sofie has from an early age decided that when she got married, she would do whatever it takes to make sure the marriage stays and doesn't fall apart. That has always been very important to her.. in good days as well as during the bad ones... why else would one make that promise?
Speaking of promises and marriages.. There is one important person Sofie wants to talk to, but didn't find the time to during the birthday party – her father. So she hops into her fast green car to drive the short, but long, drive up to her old childhood home...
Sofie has to stop on the sidewalk for a while.. The house looks excactly like it did when she moved out, the way it always has for as far back as she can remember. They have still kept the sickly green colour on the walls, inside and out... She finds it hard to imagine that this house was once nothing but a small shack, though she has seen old photos of it... of the way it looked when her mom and dad first moved here as newlyweds in the late 1970s... A marriage that was 11 months away from making it to its tin anniversary..
Sofie walks her way to the front door to ring the doorbell, before she takes a step back waiting for someone to open.. Her father always likes to take his time, so she is left waiting for a while. She can hear the sound of his flip flops moving lazily across the floor, before he finally opens the door. She mutters a few words before he walks up to give her a formal greeting and invite her inside.
Sofie initiates the conversation by complaining about how hard it is to do dishes and to get them clean enough, and they both rediscover that they share the grumpy and the perfectionist trait.. This is largely where Sofies grumpiness comes from.
There are always four sides to every story, and Asgeir, though he was always faithful, wasn't always the easiest man to share a roof with. Due to his grumpy mood, he often had his off days where almost everything seemed wrong, and of course, the next thing he does is to launch into an argument with Sofie about a piece of classical music.. I believe classical music to be his favorite music. It has to be, because it's pretty much always playing in this house. :P
Sofie however, didn't come there to argue and she doesn't really have to strong feelings neither for nor against classical music, so she pretends to agree with whatever he said, and they continue a conversation about music in general that is much more relaxed.
Asgeirs life has revolved around books and painting, so Sofie picks her conversational topics with care. It's important for Sofie to stay on good terms with her dad, and after she has fulfilled her wish of talking to him, she wants to hand him a gift.
Luckily, she already has a book in her inventory to give him, and even though the book turned out to be a childrens book, he was still happy about the gift. :P
Sofie then wants to brighten her fathers day by telling him a true sunshine story, but he's not up for it and it just bores him..
"Why is dad so hard to please? I just want us all to hang out and stay together.. like a family..." Sofie thinks to her self, disheartened once more, as she walks over to the juice station for a drink and to watch the romance channel.. At least the people on the tv live a happy, perfect life...
While she was having a few drinks, her father had followed the sound of someone playing guitar and walked into one of the rooms at the end of the hallway. The room that he walked into used to serve as his office, where he wrote all his books and painted most of his paintings.
Sofie decides to follow the sound of the guitar too, after getting a little buzzed from the juice. And to address the teddy bear in the room, I have no idea what it's doing there. It could be a left over from Jonathan and Sofies childhood, or maybe something they own in case their grandchildren wanted to come over and play. :P
The sound of the guitar comes from Sofies mom, Lucie. They are divorced, but they still live in the same house that they have more or less built together. Before Lucie could move back in, Asgeir had built a seperate apartment for her with her own entrance. They had agreed in the beginining that her apartment would be off limits to him, since they didn't still didn't want to see each other.. or couldn't see each other, without a literal fight erupting.. they have since reconciled and every room of the house is now open to both of them. They decided to live like this, not for themselves, but for the sake of their grandchildren, so that they could come over and visit and have both grandma and grandpa present at the same time..
Lucie notices she's got a pair of onlookers and tucks the guitar away, to engage in a group conversation. It's not to often mom, dad and daughter are all in the same room. The conversation is good for a while, but Asgeir has to ruin the mood by launching into an argument about politics with Lucie.. He has always been a difficult man, but his tendency to argue tripled after he learnt she was cheating on him, and thought it has cooled down considerably, the hurt is still there..
Lucie scowls and immediately clenches her fists in response with a face of someone that could probably kill a man... Sofie looks at her father "Was that really necessary?"
Asgeir realizes he's made a fool of himself, and decides to leave the room with Lucie hurling an insult to go at him... This wasn't how Sofie wanted the visit to turn out, though it was kind of what she had expected...
"See you later, mom..." Sofie says as she leaves the room thinking her parents could need some time seperate to cool off again..
Sofie decides to kill some time having a few more drinks by the juice bar again until she gets hungry. That's when she thinks she'll give it another go for them to do something together as a family, and wants to take them out dining..
She decides to take them out to the Corsican Bistro, because she knows the food there is excellent. She wrote the menu herself.
When they decide on their seating, Lucie immediately goes for the table with three chairs, but Asgeir doesn't follow her there and neither does Sofie, as she sits down with her father. She asks him why he took so long to decide and still ended up with a meal from the kids menu... "You should've tried our chicken legs instead, they're ace."
Lucie is saddened that they didn't want to sit at her table and she had to eat alone.. but at least Asgeir and Sofie had a nice meal together, before Sofie had to run back inside the restaurant to start her evening shift...
Like mother, like daughter.. Kleopatra is home from school and has sat down to watch the cooking channel on tv.. She also wants to make friends with her aunt Helene after the birthday party, so she decides to give her a call to discuss the latest celebrity gossip and the importance of smoke detectors..
"You have to be careful when cooking, so you won't accidentally set fire to your kitchen" Helene says, hoping that the teenager will avoid the same mistake Helenes own absent minded mom once did...
Walter, when he came come home from school, went directly to his sisters bedroom to start a gigantic painting.. The easel there was Kleopatras birthday gift when she became a teenager. A bit of failed gift, because Kleopatra has never shown any interest in painting...
Kleopatra has, since Walters birthday party, gotten the idea that she wants to make as many friends as possible, so before she sits down at the kitchen table to do her homework, she gives a call to Robert whom she is almost friends with, to invite him over to hang out. She is very excited that he agreed to come over.
Kleopatra puts away her homework as he walks up the stairs and welcomes him to the house, and Robert is happy to be invited. Then through the window, I see a familiar shape standing on the grass below the Art Associations building...
It's Lise Veronica just standing there. Maybe she just watched the flowers, maybe she is contemplating picking them and giving them to Kristina as a sign of affection.. or maybe she's just being weird, I don't know.. :P
Kleopatra and Robert quickly moves to the sofa in the living room area where they discuss summer and vacation plans among other things. Eivind eventually comes home from work to join them, and both Robert and Kleopatra is a bit flabbergasted when he once again threatens Kleopatra with being grounded if she doesn't behave, even though she hasn't really had the time to do any mischief since before the birthday party.. Robert comments that his mother Ranveig isn't as strict, and that she trusts him more to do mostly do what he wants, and that maybe Eivind should be the same way. Kleopatra agrees and this fulfills her wish of becoming friends with Robert.
Sofie is finished with her shift at work and receives a message from her boss, Iliana Langerak, on her phone. She has one of those modern type of phones where you can enlarge the screen beyond the size of the phone. Amazing what modern technology can do.
..because Sofie knows that Iliana can be a bit erratic. It seems Sofie is right, because I find a crowd outside Hogans Diner scratching their heads and laughing at Iliana, wondering what she is doing there in her swimsuit...
So instead of going to the party (or going home), Sofie decides to walk a round circling the restaurant where she stops by the back door to gaze at a little rodent. A rat of all things.. Sofie finds the rat cute, but I don't.. There's a rat by the backdoor of your restaurant, Sofie.. if I were you, I would start laying out traps and poison.. because if there are rats outside, there are probably rats inside too! Not cute... :P
Then another rat shows up as Petter Lande was also on a late night stroll around the restaurant..Now the he found Sofie alone without her husband, he's got a confession to make, and promptly invites her home to his place after work for "just a bottle of wine..."
Sofie is offended and wants none of that! That's the stupidest thing she has heard – in a good while! Sofie will do almost anything for love, true and steady love, but she won't do that! No way, not at all! Sofie has already seen what such a thing can lead too and has since long concluded that it's not at all worth it....
..so she leaves the good for nothing 🐸🐸🐸🐸 behind and heads back to her own family, where Robert is still there discussing school with Kleopatra, even though he said he had to be off for work while they were still on the couch.. but hanging out with cousin Kleopatra isn't half bad, and it sure beats going to work...
..but all fun things come to an end, if only temporary, as Kleopatra gets tired and wants to go to bed. She wishes him a good night and says they could hang out together again some other time, before she goes down to her room to find her brother there still painting on her easel..
I smell a future painter here. It looks like Walter is very keen on following in the footsteps of his grandfather, also a well known painter. Walter has been so caught up in painting, he even forget to eat and do his homework... and when Kleopatra tells him to leave the room so she can go to bed, he still has discuss his favorite colours with her.
Kleopatra goes to bed and quickly falls asleep as he leaves the room to go upstairs and finally get himself a meal. The fridge still has plenty of leftovers from his birthday, so finding something good to eat isn't that hard.. and his homework? Well, it can wait....A painter has no need to learn mathematics or rehearse grammar rules... that is, if a painter is what he'll end up becoming..
Good night.
New homes and house expansions...
Now if you remember how last year ended and this year started with Amena looking for a new home for her and George, and buying the empty lot on 180 Redwood Parkway.. I want to go there and take a look at how it has been doing since last time..
Evolution of 180 Redwood Parkway since Amena bought it in january. It's starting to look like something. I'm sure it will be a nice house for Amena and George when it gets finished.
--
For the next update it's back to january to follow Oliver Freddy and Inge for their fourth semester at university...They're seasoned veterans there now.
Sub blogs: #01 Sunset Valley. #02: Lake Onebega #03: Sprottenham #04: Bewickton
Mari Boine - Gumppet Holvot (The wolves howl)
Lyrics translated to english (taken from the artists web page):
live from day to day
I wait and see
I wait and see
what comes next
I wait and see
what you are planning
I live, live from day to day
I talk, talk and talk
Saying the same things
again and again
repeat and repeat
repeat and repeat
And the wolves howl
as they always have
and always will
and always will
as they always have
and always will
I wait and see
what are you plotting now
wait and see
what are you scheming
I live, live from day to day
I talk, talk and talk
saying the same thing
again and again
chewing and chewing
the same words
While the wolves howl
as they always have
Always will
This update is a continuation of Chapter 19.1 – Sunset Valley – January 2023: Part I – New Year, New home, New beginning.. from the point where Oliver Freddy and Inge left Sunset Valley to continue their fourth semester at university..
"Bye bye brother.. see you again in summer...then we'll go fishing together.. you know I didn't really mean it when I said you were weird..."
The journey takes them east, and then north to the small on the shores of Lake Onebega between the Appaloosian mountains to the west and the smaller Nimíipuu mountain range to the east.
Back to old grounds, and Oliver Freddy already wants to go on a date with Inge.. Inge is looking forward to returning to her art studies..
She just has to stop and show off with a wrench for a while.. Climbing the ranks of the social groups have given her a bit of a confidence boost and made her more confident about her inborn handiness skill.
"See what I can do! I'm not a loser!"
Then after a while some of their other room-mates also return, from top left to bottom right: Jonathan Dirk (will he still have a crush on Inge?), Skip Taylor, Daniel Vaughn, Cody Eisenberg and Ayana Yuki.
Jonathan Dirk finds Oliver Freddy to talk about his expectations for the upcoming semester and studying, while Inge repeatedly engages Skip Taylor in the university slogan dance.
Inge goes outside to do something that, atleast up until now, have been pretty uncharacteristic of her, but something that her boyfriend has done several times.. to go dumpster diving. There are some hints of personal growth in her since her first semester at university.. Or atleast changes, because maybe dumpster diving can't excactly be filed under personal growth.. but she is being more courageous and dares to do things she previously didn't, and getting dirty in a dumpster is one of those things.. No more is she the shy and timid freshman that would cry over her own burnt waffles in the morning!
Well, mostly...
Oliver Freddy was inside reading a copy of Inges first published novel, "A miner's heart". A story of a copper mine in the far northern mountains, and a young hard headed miner falling in love with one of the entertainers working at one of the gambling houses downtown...
Then it was time for them to head for the information meeting at the Student Union to pick up the books they would need for this semester..
Their first lecture isn't until tomorrow, so after having picked up their stuff, Inge goes to play on the arcade machines. Oliver Freddy wants to put some scientific data into context, so heads over to the institute of the technology to have a talk with the professors there.
The professors weren't to happy about the data he brought as they weren't relevant for their ongoing research project on the effects of woohoo on the brain (Seriously... that's what the pop-up said..:P) so they only rewarded him 21 simoleons for the effort.
Well, Oliver wasn't in it for the money, so that didn't faze him much, he was much more disappointed about not having the correct data – again... but since he learnt about their research project he got an idea. He already wanted to take Inge out on a date, but now he wanted to take it a step further.. also since he knew there would be a full moon out tonight. He thought he could already hear the wolves howling from the distant mountain tops..
..so he sends a message to his girlfriend, suggesting that they meet up at the coffee shop for some hot drinks, wink wink nudge nudge. :P
So they meet up at the café and Oliver Freddy being blessed with the inappropriate trait that stems from his grandpa doesn't shy away from giving flirtatious comments about getting their hair wet and skinny dipping in the lake.. yep, that's what he said... but it's a little to cold for that this early in the season, maybe, so they launch into the university cheer dance before they continue to talk about just that, the cold and the snow and end it with a passionate kiss.
They head on over to the counter to order their coffee and tea, but it looks like the barista is in a weird mood or could do with some training, because she just walks away from the cash register to stand awkwardly at the other end... so they give up on ordering and Cora Sidwell moves over and wants to dance with Oliver Freddy. Inge is not to keen on that, so she gets inbetween them to introduce herself to this lady in pink clothes and hideous make-up...
After this the barista seems to have gotten the idea to do what she is supposedly paid for and go stand by the cash register.. "..did these guys just want to order something...?"
Oliver Freddy entertains the girls by retelling a funny story he heard from his aunt Monica about a failed fishing experiment she did once in the small pond behind the Landgraab Research Facility in Sunset Valley. Cora laughs a little nervously while gauging Inges reaction.. "Hmm, are they a couple or..? Maybe I shouldn't have interfered..."
With the barista taking her job seriously for a moment they seize the opportunity to buy themselves some lunch, before sitting down and discussing the upcoming semester. Oliver Freddy wants to do an inkblot test on Inge again, as a purely scientific experiment of course, to see if she's got woohoo on her mind too... Not quite, as her associations were more in the line of asking to increase the royalty she gets from her publisher, dumspter diving and cooking breakfast. However, she does a bit of flirting too, before they move on to talk about the snow and cold weather again.. It always takes a while for them to adjust to the lower temperatures of the mountains after having migrated north from Sunset Valley. They discuss the weather for a while, when blam – suddenly the bathroom door behind them slams open and out comes a naked woman..
Its Jennifer Rockefeller of course. Who else? I don't know what to say about this anymore.. she has become more or less a naked running 'gag' of campus life.. it almost isn't funny anymore... :P But I'll give her that, this entrance was probably one of the best ones she ever did. It totally caught me by surprise that's for sure.. Inge and Oliver Freddy are totally unphazed, though.. Everybody must know about her streaking antics by now as nobody bats an eye.. Jennifer Rockefeller running around with nothing on is perfectly normal around here, it's what you should expect...
Though Inge seemed unaffected by the naked running woman, she jumped a little when she received a message on her phone... Unsure if the message would be a positive or a negative one, she went towards the corner to read it in privacy.. She shouted of joy when she saw that it was a party invitation from Jeffrey Dean – the same guy that mocked her and called her a loser during her freshman year.. The more self assured Inge was definately seeing an increased popularity among her peers. Now it wasn't just Oliver Freddy that got the party invitations, she got them too!
She wouldn't go to the party without her boyfriend, of course not. Like he always took her with him to the parties he was invited to, she would of course do the same. So off they went, past the ever nude Jennifer Rockefeller, now dancing next to the cafeteria counter. Oliver Freddy did his best to look away when they had to walk past Jennifer, but Inge thought it was hilarious and was excited about it. "Did you see that!?" she said when they left the cafeteria to get into his car and drive to Jeffreys party.
Inge immediately sat down to work on another sketch for a future painting, while Oliver Freddy did his best to make sure the other party guests (and the host) did their rounds on the juice keg, by far the most popular item at this party...
Inge had gone down into the basement and found the ping pong table where she played a match with Daniel Vaughn. Both her and Oliver Freddy was being sensible and staying away from the juice this early in the semester..
Oliver Freddy had gone out into the garage to see what was there. Looking up at the sky on his way, he got the idea to ask Inge to watch the stars (and the moon..)..
So he walked back inside to look for Inge. He couldn't find her anywhere in the rooms on the first floor, but someone had seen her go downstairs where he found her in the bathroom..
Of course Inge said she would be more than happy to watch the stars with him, so happily he walked back up the stairs to go outside.
When the passage had cleared and she finally made it out there, it was Oliver Freddys turn to use the bathroom.. She apologized to him for being late and said she got anxious again. Oliver Freddy understood, he knew what it was like to get anxious from time to time, though for completely different reasons. Strangely enough, perhaps, he had avoided getting bullied when he was in school, as everyone thought of him as pretty strong and brave. His father is the towns prison warden after, all, but what nobody knew back then was that he carried another secret.. Just like his mother Ranveig, his aunt Monica and eventually his younger cousin Lise Veronica, he would begin to sometimes hear voices..
It started out when he was a child, and they were pretty mild at first, just 'ordinary' commands.. "Look at that flower!".. "Look at that painting!".."Go sit in that chair!", but as he got older they got gradually worse... "Did you hear that painting? It's talking to you!"... "The painting hates you!".. and so on. The voices could sometimes be really nasty and eventually started to use all kinds of foul language... Walking though the hallways to get to class could sometimes be a nightmare with the voices blending in with the chatter from everyone else he was passing on the way... it took a lot of strength to keep a straight face and pretend nothing was happening...
People always said about him that he was brave and determined.... if only they knew.. and it was this bravery, among other things, that piqued Inges interest, how he just waded through the crowds of the hallways like it was, apparently, nothing.. and finally, after watching him from a distance from her seat in the school bus, she finally found the courage to send him a text message when she got home to ask him on a date.. and the rest you, perhaps, already know..
So... with her boyfriend using the bathroom, Inge walked up to a room on the second floor to watch her favorite channel on tv, the cooking channel...
Toilet visits could sometimes be related to setbacks for both of them, but Oliver Freddy hadn't given up on his thought of romance under the moonlight. He had to go for it tonight.
Inge was taken aback by what he just said, but oh so exciting.. Of course, it made her a little nervous too, and before she could fully commit, she had to get some emotions out of the way.. She had never done this before.. what if someone found out and walked in on them? What would they say? What would they think?
..but she trusted her boyfriend and followed him to another bedroom next door... besides, she thought that everyone downstairs were probably still to preoccupied with the juice keg to walk upstairs and notice.. right..?
Well, it's now or never...
"You ready?"
Laughter, applause and bed noises. :P
Love and magic happened that night as the moon hang shining bright high up in the sky..
"...and you only wanted to hold hands, didn't you...?" / "...why do I keep thinking about garden gnomes....?"
Oh my, looks like they did it with the door open.. someone must have heard that...
Yup, I think this guy that showed up shortly afterwards knows what just happened.
Inspired by the act or whatever it was, the random guy that almost walked in on them walks down the stairs and decides to run around streaking.. while Oliver Freddy and Inge sit down together on a couch just outside the room..
Inge is getting a little anxious again now, and thinks its time they head back home before more people notice.. besides, her first lecture starts early tomorrow morning, and she wants to make sure she gets enough sleep. Oliver Freddy agrees, they want to be good, sensible students.. and it's only the beginning of the semester... they can hopefully do some more wild partying once they have finished their exams before summer.. and what they already did was pretty wild anyway..
So they get into his car and drive back home to their dorm under the beautiful night sky to find their own bed and go to sleep...
Good night and see you again tomorrow!
Sub blogs: #01 Sunset Valley. #02: Lake Onebega #03: Sprottenham #04: Bewickton
The moon is still hanging bright in starlight outside when the semester really starts, with Oliver Freddy and Inge in bed dreaming sweet dreams...
Inges fist lecture starts early, so she goes for a quick meal in the kitchen before heading out into the early morning january sun. This semester she will be attending a course called "The development of song 201". Inge isn't excactly a songbird, so she hopes that they won't actually have to sing....
Oliver Freddy goes as usual to troll a few forums before he decides to check out the chemistry table he just received though mail order.
If aunt Monica saw him now, she would be so proud! Even more so his mother Ranveig, of course!
He experiments because he wants to discover an elixir, and he did discover one, but then.. he thought he could experiment a little more with and.. boom.. it exploded right there in his hands, but that's how you learn.
"Hmm... maybe a little less strontium powder next time.... Perhaps I should actually read the chapters about chemistry before doing any more experimenting..."
After Inge is finished with her lecture, she decides to build an igloo while her fellow student Samantha Grey keeps eyeing her in a peculiar manner... Inge could feel she was being stared at, it was almost like a certain glow emanated from Samanthas eyes...
At the same time Oliver Freddy had gone to wash of the smell of smoke and soot all the while succesfully breaking the shower in the process. He had no time to repair it or even call someone to do the job before he had to run off out into the winter snow to his first lecture ("The psychology of geology 201"). It was a nice day and the winds were calm, a perfect day for some of the locals to go for a ride in their hot air balloon. You get such a nice view of the lake and the town from up there. Perfect to survey what everyone is up to and where they're going (solar panels not included...).
Inge was done building her igloo when Samantha approached her to complain about all the boring people that just couldn't get a joke.. Inge listened patiently, before they went on to discuss their favorite cartoons and what they had learnt in class today. Inge was happy they didn't actually have to sing. They only learnt about the history and theory of song...
It looks like Inge had a plan with the igloo building, as she afterwards went inside it to study. Nice one! I didn't know they could do that.
The release of energy made her calm down a little, so she could focus on her art again, as she sat down hiding amidst the shrubs to make another sketch of the mountains that surrounded the area. Oh, what a dream it would be to roam free amidst the mountains, go for a swim in a small lake that she found. To run through the new days mist and to quench ones thirst from the clear fresh water from a tiny stream flowing gently through the landscape.... back to the meaning of... life!
While Inge was inside the igloo reading, a bit of drama had unfolded on the outside as some unsuccessful flirting had been going on between Marlene Huse (in the blue jacket) and this guy to the right (in the grey jacket) whose name I forgot to take note of.. Nonetheless, Inge didn't have time for any drama as she since yesterday had gotten a wish to throw a juice keg party of her own.. So it was time to go home, get some rest and begin the party preperations...
Inviting people to the party was of course necessary. Inge wanted to become even more popular (and prove to people she wasn't a loser) and as such she wanted to create the best party of everyone on campus this semester. She even dared to invite Jeffrey Dean to the party.. what a sucess it would be if only he showed up..
Oliver Freddy was hungry after his lecture, so he ran past a woman making a snow angel in her swimsuit and over to the cafeteria to get something to eat for lunch...
The barista at the cafeteria was on the ball today and he managed to successfully order a bagel. While he was eating he came to talk to a girl sitting on the couch there reading in her book. He learnt that her name was Karoliiná Onébegajávrre and that she was a freshman student in technology before they had a releatively mundane conversation that revolved around eating and food, naturally, I suppose. He didn't ask her about her last name, but he assumed that she had to be from around here, since her last name had a striking resemblance to the name of the place...
Like his girlfriend Oliver Freddy was also tired from having stayed up a little late at the party yesterday so after finishing his meal he leaves the cafeteria to join his girlfriend napping on the bed..
After having a satisfying nap, its time for Inge to prepare for her party.. The first task is to clean up the kitchen and the dining room, because as usual her room mates have left a mess of dirty plates and rotten food all over the place..
After finishing up the last round of decorations, Inge got hungry and prepared a meal of hot dogs to herself (with some extra servings intended for the guests), and when cleaning up her own plates, the dishwasher broke..
So she had to order someone to repair it, as well as clean up all the water that was now running out all over the floor quickly before the guests would arrive..... and while she was already holding the phone in her hand, she thought she might just order a pizza as well, in case the hot dogs wouldn't be good enough for her guests...
To late! Guests had already began to show up, and were freaking out at the sight of the broken dishwasher...
Oliver Freddy, though he thought the decorations looked nice, didn't want to join party, so he sat down in the tv room that was currently quiet to study in his books. He didn't want to slouch on his studying, because he didn't want to let his mom down by coming home for summer with poor grades...
Inge on the other hand was busy greeting and socializing with the guests just when the door bell rang and the pizza arrived. It was very important for her to make everyone feel welcome at the party, so she had to talk to everyone atleast once.. She didn't want anyone to leave thinking the party was lame (or worse, that she was a loser for arranging a terrible party...)
Oliver Freddy was interrupted in his reading (studius interruptus...) by the doorbell, so he went to pick up the pizza and put it in the kitchen.. but he didn't serve anyone.. he considered going back to studying, but figured that since he was already interrupted he might as well just give a helping hand to those in need...
Inge was happy to see Debbie Richards at the party, whom she met about a year ago from now, right at the start of her second semester. They both share an interest in art, and Debbie, though a professor in business, was also enrolled as an art student for a while back then.
Then it was time to serve the pizza, to make sure everyone had their stomach filled with food, before the party would (hopefully) kick off..
Everyone sat down to eat their pizza and appeared to enjoy themselves, but Inge was still anxious about how this night would go.. She had never arranged a party of this size all on her own before, so she needed to take a time out and go to the bathroom upstairs to get spend a few moments by herself before she could return to the party...
When you've felt like and been told you're a loser for most of your life, I guess that feeling is gonna be hard to shake off, but really.. so far Inges party was going great, and she had no reason to worry...
Even Liz Tarry whom couldn't find a chair for herself because the cups were in the way was really enjoying herself while eating the pizza.. I have never before seen such an orderly group of sims eating together with no one complaining, standing in a line or stomping their feet... Well done Inge, you really should pat yourself on the back for this one!
Only her boyfriend didn't attend the party, as he had gone back to the tv-room to try to study for a while.
Though he gave up after a while and joined the others at the party to dance as the volume of the music for some reason began to increase... Inge had also made it downstairs from the bathroom to enjoy a piece of the pizza too, and though everyone except Oliver Freddy had taken a bite off it, there was still a lot of it left somehow.. (yes, that's the same pizza. She only ordered one.. maybe it's one of those never ending pizzas and they won't have to buy another piece of food for the entire rest of their time there.. :P )
Oliver Freddy wasn't all that much in the spirit for partying though, and sat down to have a word with his girlfriend shortly before he decided to go to bed... He wasn't against Inge throwing a party to have fun, but he was a little miffy about having a juice keg party arranged so early on in the semester...
He wanted to make sure she knew that he would not take any responsibility for how this turned out should something go wrong, and that she would have to bear the burden of cleaning it up afterwards... "And please keep the music volume at a sensible level..."
"Oh.. sure, it was my idea to throw this party. I promise it won't get out of hand..."
Well, so far so good. The party was a good one, but it didn't really take off. After Oliver Freddy went to bed, Inge was approached by Ruby Parks to have another discussion about art, whereas the other party guests found themselves dancing partners and began slow dancing.
It wasn't until the other dormmates came home the party showed signs of a bit of tension, as Skip Taylors first reaction was to walk over to the record player to curse at it, because he wanted to go to sleep. :P
Inge didn't notice him, she was just starting to feel good about her party. Finally she had created a successful social event. If this doesn't increase her popularity on campus, then nothing will.. She already felt that her party had become a success and that nothing could go wrong from here... It was such a blissful moment. :P
She even did a perfectly synchronized cheer with Liz Tarry.
A few more of Inges dormmates had come home to join the party and get themselves a meal (in the background Omar Bjørkhaug to the left and Jonathan Dirk to the right) while Inge was slow dancing with Matthew Tellmer. Everything was going great so far, and there were no crazy shenanigans going on...
..or atleast not until these two guys (Jeffrey Dean to the left and Daniel Vaughn to the right) started running naked through the hallways.. :P It wouldn't have been a true party without at minimum one person streaking.
The party began to look like it was spreading out a little more, but the mood was still good. Ruby Parks was playing computer games on her own and Jonathan Dirk was giving Debbie Richards a hand with the juice keg, to the amusement of Liz Tarry. "Let's see how juiced we can get the professor..."
After having slow danced with Matthew Tellmer (and getting her feet stepped on numerous times) Inge eventually got tired and decided to go to bed as well, though that didn't stop the party as there were plenty of guests left still going strong..
Well, the mood was getting a little more tense over by the record player after Inge went to bed as this is where people began to pass out from the juice... only to wake up again to loud music blaring, which resulted in the record player being constantly turned off and then on again, because those that weren't passing out still wanted to dance. :P
Looks like the party had reached its end stage...
A little off balance there perhaps, professor? :P
Maybe Inge should've been awake now to say the party was over, because by the time Ayana Yuki came home (at way past three in the night..) the mood was getting a little tense in the hallway. After everyone had been enjoying repeated rounds to the juice keg their speech wasn't what it used to be, which lead to misunderstandings that eventually turned into petty arguments that noone would remember what was about come tomorrow morning...
"Someone has been throwing a party I see.. well, that's not my responsibility.. I'll just go into the kitchen to prepare myself a meal before going to bed..."
"Oh shoot.. how did it catch fire so fast...? I must have dozed off..."
..this is why the fire department would tell you not to make food when you come home at 3 in the night...!
"Yawn... did you set the alarm, Inge?"
"No.. no, it's the fire alarm! We have to get out!"
Downstairs in the kitchen people had noticed the fire too, and had congregated around it to do the usual panick dance ritual... except this one (Billie Jean Sparks) standing to the left.. "I'm not gonna worry about a fire without finishing my drink first, flarn it!"
..but it's a good thing then that we have a sober and brave man in the dorm to save the day (or night).
Ayana: I don't know how this happened.. I was just.. I just put it in the oven, and then boom! It was on fire!
Oliver Freddy: Next time do us all a favor and order take away or something..
There were two brave men on the lot as Jeffrey Dean eventually rushed in with a fire extinguisher as well, and together they just managed to put out the fire shortly after the fire fighter had arrived..
The fire fighter didn't scold anyone for it, but atleast he targeted the right person by pointing and laughing at her for being such a lousy cook.. I hope this embarrassing moment teaches her something.
Oliver Freddy and Inge went back to bed shortly thereafter, though it seems it's gonna take more than a burning kitchen to stop the party.. but for now.. I think it's time to say...
... good night.
----
PS: I wasn't trying to make it look like Jonathan Dirks private parts were on fire in the second to last picture, I was just adding the necessary censorship and I thought the fire symbol, given what just happened, was most relevant to use. :P
Sub blogs: #01 Sunset Valley. #02: Lake Onebega #03: Sprottenham #04: Bewickton
Oliver Freddy and Inge had gone to bed now for the second time after the fire in the kitchen, but downstairs the party was in no way over...
Someone had called the police, and they appeared to show up strong with two units. However, only one of the officers actually left their car, and I think he was pretty ineffective at his job..
..because all he did was find Jonathan Dirk who just so happened to be outside this very moment and give him a scolding, before turning around and running back to his police car.
He didn't even go inside the house to stop the party and confiscate the juice keg and record player, like they did last time there was a party at the De Anda Hall.. but I guess not every police officer can be a good police officer, or something. :P
Nobody inside had even registered that the police had been on the lot and continued their partying like nothing had happened. It was only Jonathan Dirk now who desperately tried to keep things orderly by cleaning up the clothes strewn all over the place by the streakers running around...
The party lasted literally until early morning when Oliver Freddy and Inge got out of bed to eat breakfast..
Oliver Freddy wasn't at all happy about the mess of the dining area, and told his girlfriend he would not take any responsibility when it came to cleaning up the mess as he had to leave for his lecture..
Shortly after Oliver Freddy had left to go to his lecture another police car came screeching around the corner with full sirens on. This police officer actually made it into the house, however, he wasn't particularly effective in shutting the party down as nobody took him seriously and the police officer ended up being reprimanded by Omar, one of their dorm mates, instead...
The party didn't end until Inge herself figured out she had to take the rounds and tell the more or less clothed guests to pack it up and head back home before she could begin to clean up the mess they had left behind..
Afterwards she sat down on the couch, her favorite piece of furniture, to watch the cooking channel again when she was joined by Jonathan Dirk. However, he wasn't flirtatious this time, but rather a little tense.. he wasn't to happy about the mess created from the party, and made sure Inge got to hear about how he had helped to clean up some of it just the night before...
Oliver Freddy attending his morning lecture wasn't feeling to much better, after having slept poorly due to the loud music from downstairs, in addition to waking up to the fire alarm going off..
Inge found it best to leave Dirk behind for a while to continue the painting of the sunset she saw last semester, while she still had it in memory, before going to her own lecture a little later.
Just gotta have a quick cup of coffee first to try to keep awake..
..and off to her lecture as soon as Oliver Freddy came home from his. No time to talk, gotta go! (..but atleast she had cleaned up the place some, as well as she could..)
On the way home Oliver Freddy had stopped by the post office to pick up yet a couple more things he had ordered through mail. A small table and a fish bowl, because he wanted to do some research on an anchovy he had brought with him from Sunset Valley.. His interest in fishing and science comes from his aunt Monica, and what's exciting for him is that he has a bigger toolbox available to do examine things than what his aunt had in her younger days.. His mother Ranveig didn't care about this, she was more interested in the chess table and digging through trash..
He got his sample to examine later, while Inge was enjoying her lecture in art following yesterdays party...
Oliver Freddy went back to the chemistry table to discover another elixir, but was unsuccessful this time, but on the bright side, there were no explosions either. :P After he had been standing there for a good while mixing various substances, something started smelling pretty bad.. at first he thought it was something he had mixed together, but eventually he recognized the smell of filthy clothes..
All of the streakers from yesterday had left behind a good pile that had to be cleaned up...
His dormmates had tried to clean them up, but since the dorm didn't come with a washing machine, all they could do was collect them in a pile and drop them in the hallway.. so Oliver Freddy had to take them to the Findeisen laundromat to have them cleaned (or just to get rid of them). :P
---
Meanwhile Inge was running with an elated mood from her lecture, because Jeffrey Dean had just sent her a party invitation! He had enjoyed the yesterdays party so much, and wanted her to come over to his house for a bonfire party! Finally she was one of the cool people! Oh happy day! :P Just don't forget to study, Inge...
It looks like Jeffrey had decided to host his party in the garage, because that's where everyone had gathered. Inge quickly found him to celebrate them being university students and hoping that maybe she could become best friends with him..
She wouldn't let incompatible traits stop her, though she was starting to feel a little tired from not having slept enough, so she thought this was a good moment to go for a nap on the couch in his living room.. Liz really wanted to talk to him to, so she could have her turn for a while..
At the laundromat Oliver Freddy was getting hungry so he tried to buy a chocolate from one of the vending machines, but it wasn't cooperating with him, so he thought he could use his brave muscle power and ram it! That oughtta teach it a lesson!
Victory! Now time to eat...
Outside there was a sign of spring approaching as the snow was melting, and for the first time the young cubs of the mountains would feel the grass under their paws... running wild, running free and tumbling about in playful fighting among themselves...
Inges sleeping on the couch at the party was unpopular by Jeffrey, and he 'thanked' her for making his party lame.. but first, food..
Luckily, Jeffreys party guests have brought plenty of dishes. There's even a stuffed turkey on the counter, the perfect spring meal.
She sits down with Mahmoud Yavari, who just finished eating his salad, where she tells him about her dreams of being a writer.. Inge has quite an imagination, the place she would escape to when she felt misunderstood by the rest of the world (and when she came home from school and her mother smelled like alcohol..).
She has plenty of stories in her head, and would love to put them down on paper along with her own drawn or painted illustrations.. Stories in rich and colourful worlds where fantasy meets reality; fluffy on the surface, but always with a certain undertow like pedal tones to an orchestral arrangement.. sometimes playing in harmony, other times creating dissonance... and sometimes you have to do dishes and house chores, while others are drinking...
Back at the laundromat, Oliver Freddy had been waiting in vain for the tumble drier to finish.. It should have stopped several minutes ago, but was still running. He put his book down and went over it, turning on every knob and pushing every button, but nothing happened.. Of course not, this was a tumble drier of the Buügfest variety, they were known for sometimes just malfunctioning like that...
Well, it wasn't his clothes anyway, so who cares.. a little grumpily though, he leaves the laundromat to watch the cool winter sun hang low over the lake... It does look nice around here sometimes, and he quickly forgets about the clothes before he heads over to the Science building to attend one of the evening classes in scientific research.
Inge feels guilty for upsetting Jeffrey by sleeping on his couch and walks over to apologize. She didn't mean to make his party boring, she just had to rest... Jeffrey is nice and accepts her apology.
Then she decides to try out the juice on his keg. It's a party after all, and she has noticed that the juice has the desirable effect of calming her mind and resolving the stress and anxiety she often feels in herself.. just one drink, it can't hurt.. right?
Oliver Freddy had just exited from the evening course in research, and though he had gotten some deeper insight into scientific methods, he hadn't gotten the skill point increase he was aiming for.. Some more practice would be needed to obtain that one.. but he thought it was enough science for now, and walked over to a nearby chess table to improve his strategic thinking instead..
Inge was still going for her target to make friends with Jeffrey. Her body movements were clearly getting a little more animated as she told Jeffrey the story of the kitchen burning just last night (even though he was there too, and even helped put out the fire..)
As another friendly gesture, she wanted to give him a gift, so she handed him the trick ball she had in her inventory. Jeffrey misunderstood the intent of the gift as a little while later (after they had gossiped about Harold Assange, hence the speech bubble), he blew a kiss at Inge...
She didn't want to light this fire, she already had a boyfriend and was only there to make friends to increase her own popularity.. luckily Miles Forthright was outside with them, so she could turn it into a group conversation...
Inge was still Inge and couldn't do to much socializing all at once, so she had to go inside to take a break and watch the cooking channel for a while..
..before she could continue her mission and have a pretty lengthy conversation (and cracking jokes as best as she could) with Jeffrey by the juice keg.
Before she helped him to get a drink..
They became friends by the end of the night, so Inge was halfway on her mission to become best friends with Jeffrey, but.. then she thought about her grades and her boyfriend. There are always choices to make, and she didn't want to come home stumbling to late in the night, so it was time to go home and get some sleep..
Oliver Freddy had made it home too, and was upstairs sharing jokes and discussing the university with Daniel Vaughn before going to bed..
"Yaawn.. ". Inges recently increased social standing have given her the opportunity to arrange bonfre parties, and maybe her next party will be of this variety.. but now it's bedtime once more..
..time to join her boyfriend, dreaming about fighting difficult tumble driers and noncooperative vending machines...
...as the winter season is approaching it's end, the fields have become green and the winds of spring are soon here to sweep across the landscape... good night.
Sub blogs: #01 Sunset Valley. #02: Lake Onebega #03: Sprottenham #04: Bewickton
Snow is falling again over the lake and the valley between the mountains as the calendar marks the entrance of spring, the second season of the year.. Winter always has to try to get the last word in before it can finally give up..
Inge is really happy when she wakes up this morning. Life couldn't have been better, as her mission to become more popular is going according to plan.
Oliver Freddy is a little grumpy about all the filthy clothes that always seem to accumulate on the lot, so he walks around to collect them and use the washing machine that he finally thought about ordering..
He had similar thoughts last semester, which led him to order a tumble drier. Sims logic is sometimes a little backwards, because they always want to buy the tumble drier first, before they figure out that a washing machine might also be useful... but as always, their wish is my command.
Inge still feels that Jonathan Dirk is attractive, but is clever enough to not make a move on him. She makes sure to mention the date she had with Oliver Freddy earlier by the breakfast table, just to make sure, before she goes to her lecture as usual.
Likewise Oliver Freddy was off to the Student Union after having entertained himself for a while watching the action channel. He was now going to try out some of the things he learned from yestermonths evening course to get a feel for how things worked in practice (and perhaps make some new amazing scientific breakthroughs).
The first thing he tried was a radiation experiment on a poor unknowing beetle he had found in the dumpster by the parking lot. The experiment ended up being successful and he had made a new and improved version of the beetle, but it wasn't enough to to reach the next level of scientific skill..
More experimenting was needed, and the next item on the list to be drowned in radiation of various kinds was a peppermint herb.
The herb experiment was succesful too, but it still wasn't enough to grant him the skill point, so he took a break from the radiation experiments for a while and went upstairs to do some reading..
After Inge is done with her lecture, she calls up Jeffrey Dean and Ruby Parks to meet up at the bowling alley. Inge still isn't done with Jeffrey Dean as she wants to become one of his best friends. In addition she has also set her sights on Ruby Parks whom she met at her own party from back in january, and wants to become good friends with her. Though its still snowing out, it feels like the sun is finally shining on Inge as she runs over to meet both of them. Lets just hope that the leaves on the trees didn't spring out to early and that winter is in fact soon over. :P
For some reason or other, they had agreed to meet up in the backyard of the bowling alley, as per Jeffreys suggestion. Inge thought that was a little peculiar, but was still happy to meet them... unfortunately, Ruby thought of something just as Inge arrived and excused herself to Jeffrey, saying she had some important business to do...
That left only Jeffrey and Inge to hang out. Jeffrey starts off the conversation by talking about the latest movie to hit the cinemas, "The fall of the moon", a fantasy-action movie about a university professor (who was imprisoned for murdering his own parents) that escapes prison with a plan to make the Simtopian planet and its moon collide and open up a portal that will unleash an army of beasts from a different world to conquer the planet and make him the supreme ruler.. of course.. :P
Inge invites him in to go bowling and they have a pretty good time doing so, even though Jeffrey appears to be a bit of a sore loser booing at Inge for outperforming him with the ball and pins.
Inges bowling skills are noticed by more than just Jeffrey as this guy called Paul Biden that has been watching them from a corner for a while admits to wanting to get to know her better...
Aside from a brief reply Inge doesn't pay him much attention and continues with her bowling, but the guy is still standing there and it's pretty obvious what he has on his mind.. :P
Then suddenly Karoliiná, the technology student Oliver Freddy briefly met at the cafeteria earlier, shows up and walks right inbtetween them as if to say hello on her way to the furthermost bowling lane. Well, hi there. :P
Inge and Jeffrey finish their bowling session and sit down on a nearby table to watch the shopping channel of all things...
Karoliiná interrupts her bowling game to walk over to talk to Jeffrey as well, a little to Inges annoyance, when another guy Nicolas Albright, has entered the bowling alley and has to shout out that he finds Inge interesting as well.. but she is taken, and has no desire to get to know this one better either..
Eventually Karoliiná goes back to bowling on her own again and the gentlemen that fancy Inge have all left the building, so she gets Jeffrey for herself with no interruptions, which is enough to finally become best buddies with Jeffrey. This has to be celebrated with taking a selfie of them both.. this one goes into the trophy album.
When that mission is complete, she has no need for Jeffrey anymore and goes back to bowling alongside Karoliiná and Ye Gangnam. Their bowling was almost synchronized, which was pretty cool to watch.
Oliver Freddy has finished reading and has gone home to eat his favorite meal for dinner..
After Inge is done bowling, she randomly gets the idea to go home and light a bonfire, because fire is cool I suppose, as long as it's kept out of the kitchen area...
Oliver Freddy and Inge has a harder time with their sleep scheduals this semester, often needing to nap in the middle of the day..
I'm not gonna sit and watch them napping, so I take a look around to see who else is out and about and I find Samantha Grey walking by the Championship Lake to sit down on the grass to make a sketch of the view and the scenery.
Samantha is a fellow art student of Inge, and that's pretty much the only thing they have in common. :P
A couple of stone throws away Karoliiná has found Jeffrey to complain about the woes of student life. As a student in technology she found it a little hard to wrap her head around the latest programming assignment from her professor..
Should the if loop go inside the for loop, or was it the other way around? Jeffrey, of course, haven't got a clue about programming.. that's for nerds.. but he still listens, and Karoliiná is satisfied just to have let off some steam. :P
Samantha joins them after finishing her sketch. She brings along her sense of humor and it turns into a group conversation where they repeatedly make fun of their silly professors. Poking fun and laughing at things is another way to let off steam. :P
Karoliiná then singles out Samantha and the conversation turns into one about the park, nature and outdoor living. Interestingly, Karoliiná refuses to address Samantha by her first name, and repeatedly only refers to her as Grey for some reason. Like that's all she is.. she's not Samantha, she's just... Grey.
She finds it a little bit hurtful that she won't use her first name, even though she is a Grey, and the girls end up walking seperate ways. Samantha walks off to enjoy a picnic on the grass and Karoliiná decides to return to her books to read more about those loops and how to structure her code for the programming assignment...
At the de Anda hall Inge just woke up from her nap, hungry but optimistic, and thought she could hit five birds with one stone... so she decided to call Ruby Parks again, and invite her over to eat at Simburger along with Liz Tarry, Nicole Lawry and Debbie Richards. Everyone agreed to come over except Debbie who just said no without really giving any explanation...
Oh well, so only four birds then, with the hunger being the fourth bird.
Inge drives over and meet the girls there. Ruby initiates the conversation and decides the topic to be about computers while they wait for Nicole that seem to be a few minutes late. When Nicole eventually arrives, she is a little shy to approach the other girls and stands waiting by the sidewalk for a while, until Inge calls her over to join the conversation.
Oliver Freddy has gone back to the Student Union to do another experiment, this time on some kona beans.
Back outside Simburger the girls are ready to go eat. Ruby decided to change her outfit to something nicer, because nothing says fine dining like a fast food joint.
Liz: Nicole... what are you doing? I don't think that's what they meant when they said we might have to get used to eating bugs in the future...
Ruby (thinking): I'll just.. uh, let them go ahead.. do I really want to know these people? I'm not sure...
The others went into the restaurant to order their food, but Nicole was pulled away from her tracks by Abigail Kaya, a student in communication that wanted to interview her about her thoughts on whether students get enough financial aid to be full time students or not. A case that has been continiuosly debated almost for as far back as anyone can remember... Nicole didn't really see the problem, since she came from a wealthy family that had no problems giving her all the support she needed...
Abigail was provoked by Nicoles answers and decided to rant against wealthy people as Nicole went inside to eat. She may be privileged, but privilege doesn't appear to come with an understanding of the best outfit to wear.. somehow in Nicoles mind eating burgers with friends means you should put on swimwear.. Looks like she has something in common with Oliver Freddy there..
Speaking of Oliver Freddy, he was still at the Student Union doing research. His kona bean experiment had failed, so he tried to experiment with some minerals he had instead. The last experiment was much more successful again.. thought it seems learning science takes time. A lot of time, because even so, he still hadn't gone up one skill point..
Over at Simburger the girls (except Nicole) had finished eating, and had now gathered in the backyard again by the dumpster... They were all getting a little tired, because all they were talking about now were beds...
Liz missed her own bed so much, she didn't even have time to wait for Nicole to finish eating before running home.. and when Nicole eventually joined them outside, that's all she could talk about, too. :P
After reaching her goal of becoming friends with Ruby, Inge eventually took the hint of all this talk about beds and decided to tell the girls good night and split the friend group to go home.
After she came home, Inge thought about Nicole for a while before she went to bed. Nicole was a little special, for sure, but she still thought it might be a good idea to have her among her friends as well...
Oliver Freddy was still at the Student Union hard at work reading through his books to try to understand what went wrong with the Kona bean experiment..
He probably could have stayed up all night reading, but as he isn't immune to needing sleep at one point reading, no matter how focused, becomes useless and it's time to go home and hit the sack...
Good night.
Sub blogs: #01 Sunset Valley. #02: Lake Onebega #03: Sprottenham #04: Bewickton
Chapter 20.4 – Onébegajávvre (Lake Onebega) - April 2023: Wildfire.
It's a fine spring morning by the lake between the mountains as Oliver Freddy gets up early for to hurry up and eat his breakfast, before running off for the last activity in medicine before the semester ends... Winter has been banished completely (for now), but the exam period has just begun to walk in circles around the town, waiting to sink its teeth and claws in the mass of students walking around campus to inject its venom of stress and anxiety into their bodies....
Oliver Freddy didn't even have time to finish his breakfast properly before he had to run, which left Inge to eat hers all alone. It wasn't to bad though, because Inge woke up in a good mood today. Pieces were falling into place for her socially finally, and today she felt could be her lucky day.
Oliver Freddy was already out in the morning sun rehearsing the bones of the skeleton with his other fellow students. Hmm, and it looks like Jeffrey Dean have signed up for medicine classes too now. :P
Inge had gone back up to their room to continue her painting. It was certainly an ambitious project to start such a large painting. She was beginning to doubt whether she would be able to finish it before the semester ends, because there were so many things to do.. studying, partying and making friends...
After the activity was over, Oliver Freddy was hungry after not having eaten a proper breakfast, so he went over to talk to Jeffrey. A new restaurant had just opened in town, and he wanted to go check it out.. Jeffrey was probably even more hungry than Oliver Freddy, so asking him to join was not a big issue...
Lizzie Mund stands to the left watching them. Lizzie Mund was Inges fist acquaintance on their first semester as students, and one she wanted to make friends with back then. However, as she was still very new and unfamiliar with both student life and the who, what and wheres of the campus area, she never ran across Lizzie again and so never got to make friends with her. Oliver tried to ask Lizzie to go check out the new restaurant too, but apparently she was on her way to go somewhere and couldn't join them.
So it's only the boys then, and off they run towards the new restaurant. Oliver Freddy thinks Jeffrey is almost acting a little to clingy as they run towards the new restaurant... It's not very far though, as it is just across the street.
The restaurant is called Skogskåtan (The Forest Cot) and focuses on local cuisine which means that deer and mulberries is guaranteed to be on the menu.
While Jeffrey and Oliver Freddy walked inside the restaurant, Inge was running fast for her activity in art. She was anxious that she was late, as she saw the other students had already started, but it turns out they had just decided to start early...
Jeffrey and Oliver Freddy had ordered each their meal and chosen their seats on the opposite ends of the restaurant.. not to close buddies yet. The restaurant has a cosy atmosphere with a crackling fire place in the middle – perfect to keep warm during the winter months and to create a warm and pleasant atmosphere all year around.
The people of the town are slowly coming over to check out this new, but very traditional, restaurant. While the boys are inside eating, a deep voice is heard from outside. There stands two local gentlemen in a discussion among themselves on whether they should go inside or not. The oldest of them is a little skeptical, but eventually the young one convinces the elder and they walk up the stairs to go inside..
The elder thinks about dining, which is natural, since it is a restaurant, but I don't think they came there to eat. They seem to be more attracted to the fire in the centre of the room, as that is the first thing they apporach. The elder decided to throw something from a test tube into the fire, creating a mystical blue smoke. I don't know what he threw in there if I'm to be perfectly honest. It didn't appear to have much of an effect apart from the visuals.. so far...?
Oliver Freddy and Jeffrey has eventually finished their meal. Oliver Freddy needed to use the bathroom, and the elder of the gentlemen walked up to Jeffrey and introduced himself as Amarok Grey, before Jeffrey contiuned to talk about another movie he had just watched...
Oliver Freddy was finished with his bathroom break and walked over to hang out with Jeffrey. The elder Grey appeared to have a strong fascination for fire as he rooted around in it and added more logs to it to make it grow larger.
What I assume to be the elders son did the same thing, as the elder decided to throw another mysterious test tube into the fire. He clapped with joy as it created a small explosion followed by green smoke and an intense and awful smell filled the room and ingrained itself in every surface and every piece of clothing. Vile!
Oliver Freddy finds it absolutely appaling, and decides to leave the restaurant to run to the gym to take a shower (as he is just a little bit closer to the gym than he is to his dorm). Who are these people and why are they acting in such a foul way to spread this filthy smell inside a newly opened restaurant? Oliver Freddy didn't know and couldn't make sense of their actions, all he knew right now was that he was in dire need of a shower, and quickly.. He felt absolutely filthy, almost to he bone...
At the art students drawing activity Inge was now left drawing alone, as Samantha had taken charge of the rest of the group and relocated them all to make a sketch of the fountain. The sound of water is a soothing sound, just like the small meltwater streams from the mountain glaciers during spring...
Oliver Freddy had been hard at work to improve his skills in science recently, so after showering off the filthy smell of dirt, he sat down on a couch in the gyms locker room to entertain himself with some light reading for a change...
On the grass by the art institute the group that started early was already finished with their drawing exercise, and Samantha begin to tip toe in a circle around the group. She wanted in part to amuse herself and in part show the group that she was their leader and wouldn't be afraid to discipline anyone there by the method of humiliation if it should be necessary..
Debbie Richards hadn't really done anything to deserve being disciplined, but she was the oldest of them, and so Samantha felt it necessary to challenge her position and put her in her place...
Samantha wasn't done using the megaphone. She wanted her voice to be heard as she went on to deliver another rant about hierarchy... the main message being that if you want to rise in rank here, you have to prove your worth!
Inge had heard all the commontion from afar and became curious. Who was this Samantha, and why was she loud? Inge wasn't looking to challenge anyones authority or whatever position they thought they had in the group, she was just curious about this loudmouth and wanted to get to know her better.. what makes this one tick the way she does?
Inge starts the conversation by talking about her favorite music, hoping to learn something about Samantha that way. Eyes are the windows to the soul they say, but figuring out someones taste in music is probably a whole lot more informative – or atleast more tangible, as music often conveys both meaning and mood... Inge learns that Samantha is a big fan of music, in particular that of indie pop and rock – a type of music said to value independence, but that still has a certain group mentality associated with it, as do most cultures and sub-cultures anyway. :P
Inge picks up from Samantha that she kind of feels a little bit like an outsider among most people of the town, a feeling which Inge can understand and relate to. Having a group of friends – something that gives one a sense of belonging somewhere – seems to be important to both of them, though perhaps for somewhat different reasons.
Samantha seems to take a liking to Inge, and thinks they should go fishing one day, after they have finished their exams of course. To be one with nature and to catch their own food... Inge prefers to sit on the couch and watch tv, or atleast doing some kind of indoor activity, but she also wants to make friends, so why not? Maybe one day they'll do that..
Another important thing for Inge is family, so she leads on by talking about her own, her mom and dad and her two younger sisters from back in Sunset Valley. She has hopes that this will make Samantha inclined to share something about her own family, but Samantha seems very secretive there. She mentions that she has a family, but she speaks very vaguely about it, and doesn't say who they are or how many of them there are.
Inge isn't just curious about Samantha. She still wants to make friends with Nicole, so she calls her over to hang out and make a crowd of them.
She is excited that Nicole would come over and runs over to the front entrance to meet her.
Meanwhile Oliver Freddy has finished reading the book and wants to take another course in gardening. As he runs by their dorm he notices a group of horses standing by.. It's definately spring time and with milder weather the animals appear to have emerged from their winter lairs and head into town....
Interesting that Inge and Oliver Freddy are choosing such different parts and have almost switched roles. Oliver Freddy was the most popular one in the beginning, now its Inge doing all the socializing.. Oliver Freddy seems to be here mostly to learn as much as possible.. but then again, he was initially the driving force of them going to university in the first place, so.. I guess it's not to surprising. :P
Inge is now the leader of her group as she stakes out the path for them and runs towards the Grotto to hang out. However, there is trouble as suddenly Nicole declares she finds it boring already and leaves the group...
So then there were two.. Inge concludes after this that she will ditch Nicole completely in favor of Samantha. It turns out they had a little more than just their interest in art in common, and Nicole..? She was just to different from them, with her random impulses and spoiled rich girl background...
So they enter the grotto to discuss art and painting for a while, and right next to them Karoliiná sits on the floor, now working to finish her last programming assignment for the semester. She has to think pretty hard, because this is a big one where she has to combine everything she has learnt so far...
Inge thinks she has found a new friend in her fellow art student Samantha, and asks if they can study together, you know, since she can almost feel the exam staring at them from around the nearest corner... but Samantha declines. Reading books isn't her preferred way of gaining knowledge.. Samanthas approach is much more practical, it's learning by doing she says. Just like her family has done it through multiple generations.. the old teaches the young by showing how its done, and the young goes out to practice.. That's the most effective way to learn, that's how knowledge sticks according to Samantha.
"How strange... doesn't she read books? How can you be a university student without reading books?" Inge ponders about it, and it makes her more curious about this Samantha.. She wants to learn more about her, to become good friends with her..
Of course, Samantha isn't entirely wrong, practice is a good way to learn. And practice, that is just what Oliver Freddy has gone to do after his gardening course. Back at their dorm, he now wants to do gardening, so he goes to plant his failed-experiment kona bean as well as the improved herb into the ground to see what will become of them...
Oliver Freddy has now decided his brain can't take in any more knowledge, and goes to watch something pointless for the rest of his time to relax his grey matters and put him at ease in time for the exam...
Samantha then wants them to play a game of pool. She wants to feel Inge out, to know how she fares in the game to establish the rank inbetween them. Does she have what it takes to guide them, or is she better fit to be a subordinate? And for the record, she really meant it when she said they should go fishing one day....
While the girls are still playing their game, Oliver Freddy has already gone to bed early, before the sun has set. Of course, in the darkest of winter this might not have looked so early, as the sun stays in the sky longer and longer for each day as summer approaches.
As the match between the girls draw closer to its end and it looks like Inge is about to win this one, Samantha gets increasingly adamant about them going fishing. Inge tries to get a word or two in about the things that are most important to her, such as art and family, but Samantha is not letting go of them going fishing.. "So you know how to play pool, but can you catch your own food and then cook it?" Samantha wants to know.. Something tells me Inge will continuously be put to the test here..
The game ends as it must, and Inge ends up winning, though it was a close match as Samantha wasn't to far behind. Inge gets hungry and walks over to the bar to eat, when Karoliiná (who just finished eating by the same bar) walks over to Samantha to lecture her about cleaning, which is kind of.. odd...
It looks like Karoliiná wants to play a game of her own. She changes the topic from cleaning (which made it sound a little bit like she was trying to imply Samanthat doesn't know how to keep things clean...) to garlic.. not as an ingredient in food, but as something to keep in ones home to ward off evil... Samantha is not happy about the way this conversation is going, and wants to talk about something else.
While Inge is over at the bar eating, Samantha wants to talk about the joys of exercise, in particular that of jogging or running outside. "Wouldn't it be a good idea if we could start a runners club or something to go run together? How about every thursday evening at 18?" Samantha suggests, but Karoliiná isn't very interested...
"I prefer to do my exercise alone" she says "I wasn't made to run in packs..."
"Why not?" Samantha asks "Me and my brothers have done that since we were just cu.. umm, since we were just small children.."
"I knew it.. you're one of them, aren't you? You're a greybone!" Karoliinás voice was spiteful as she uttered the last word...
"That's hurtful...". Samantha immediately slouches when she hears what Karoliiná is saying..
"I'm sorry, but I just can't be seen hanging out with greybones..."
"Please don't call us that.. don't call me that.. My name is Samantha...Samantha Grey..."
Greybone... the word felt like a punch in the stomach for Samantha and her usually loud and boisterous voice wasn't much more than a restrained whimper...
"We all do what we've been taught by our own elders..." Samanthas feeling of hurt turned to anger as she went over to the counter to order food.. This wasn't a new thing, her parents have heard just the same, and their parents again. There's always been a feud for as far back as anyone can remember between the people of the town and the Greys of the mountains, with the people being animal herders and the Greys being hunters...
Samantha sat down to eat next to Inge. She seemed friendly and wasn't from around here, and so she probably didn't have a side in this. Samantha was still a little tense and didn't feel much like talking, but sitting next to someone whom she perceived as friendly (atleast for now) made her feel a little bit at ease. Samantha didn't want to fight a war, she just wanted acceptance for herself and her family to live their life on their terms, though in case something should arise she hoped that she had found a new ally in Inge...
Inge didn't know excactly what was going on, but she could tell Samantha wasn't feeling her best for some reason. She didn't like the silence and wanted to lift the mood so she tried to start a conversation about children and family. It made Samantha feel a little better, as she enjoyed this topic too. Family, friendship and cooperation were important values for Samantha and pretty much anyone from the Grey family. Just like Inge, Samantha also dreamt of raising her own one day, watching them learn and grow... Hopefully in a world that could be a little more understanding...
It was getting late and Inge felt the need to go home and get some sleep before exam day, but she wanted to hang out with Samantha again at a later time, so as an ending note she suggested they should meet up and have a cup of coffee one day.
Coffee and cake, perhaps.
Then it was time to finally say goodnight, and it looks like the girls have bonded pretty well, because they say goodbye with a hug, when I was expecting just a wave and a good night.
Well, this is cute, they both look happy to have made a new friend, and so this day ends on a happy note for both of them.
Not so much for everyone though, because in the background while Inge and Samantha were bonding, someone else were fighting.. The aforementioned Paul Biden* had a prolonged and pretty serious argument with Manisha Kapoor where he accused her of cheating on him.. and now he calls her a vegetable... that relationship is probably on a countdown, but atleast Samantha is happy now..
Good night.. hopefully everyones exam will go well.
Sub blogs: #01 Sunset Valley. #02: Lake Onebega #03: Sprottenham #04: Bewickton
Chapter 20.5 - Onébegajávvre (Lake Onebega) - May 2023: Wildfire, part II..
It's exam day for all the students in town, and fire is the first thing on Oliver Freddys mind as he wakes up this morning... He has been a good student, and is pretty confident his exam will go well. He is still young, so maybe tonight he will set something on fire. Not the entire world, perhaps, but something a little more localized.. no, not the kitchen either... a bonfire in the backyard should do.
He was the first one of everyone on the dorm to wake up, so he got to eat his breakfast in peace.. until Cody showed up. I'm trying to tell a story here, but even I don't know everything that happens behind the scenes.. It became one of the themes of this day, that whenever Cody was nearby, everyone showed disapproval of him, but I don't know what he has done to get this reaction from people...
Inge didn't mind him though. She thought it was nice to have a moment of togetherness eating breakfast, before she had to run off to her exam. At the end of her second year at university, the people she shares a dorm had in a way become her family away from family...
If the weather held up, maybe she could go fishing with Samantha later. She still thought about her since their meeting last month, and hoped she was doing alright. She had a feeling Samantha wasn't telling her everything. Well, it wasn't just a feeling. It was pretty obvious there was something Samantha hadn't told her. She was hoping to earn her trust and that she would eventually open up about whatever it was...
Oliver Freddys exam wasn't until after lunch, so he had plenty of time to relax and actually go fishing.. He hadn't fished around here before, so he didn't know where the best fishing spot was, but as Senior Lake was the biggest lake he knew (apart from the lake that gave the place it's name...), he thought it should be a good spot with plenty of fish.
He managed to catch a couple of ray-finned-fish before he ran out of bait and decided to call it quits. He wasn't happy about either catch and it looked like he considered throwing them out again as he held them up to gauge their weight and quality. They were only average quality fish, and of course he was hoping for something better. Not because he wanted to cook them, but because he wanted to gather the best possible scientific data. One day he would show those professors that always rejected his findings.. one day... He still kept the fish though, maybe something good could come out of them, and if not, atleast he would gain experience before the big find...
With plenty more time to kill he went over to the Coffee Shop (passing by a house known as "The Grey Junior house" on the way) 'to relax a little more reading a book about a day in the life of a plantsim...
Plantsims? The book was written as if plantsims was something that existed, and the foreword even suggested that with a high enough skill in science or by planting a certain special seed one could possibly even grow or create a plantsim.. Oliver Freddy dismissed the idea as fictional. It sounded like something his aunt Monica would come up with in one of her ramblings... It wasn't even pseudoscience, but he found it an entertaining read nonetheless. There's plenty of people around, sure, but they're not growing on trees...
In the foreground is Vuolle Onébegajávrre (Karoliinás father) talking to Ashley Corono about the legend of the three wildfires that is said to one day consume and end the town.. The legend is one that has been passed down through generations. It's origin is unclear, but archeologists and historians has so far concluded that it might stem from a forest fire that almost decimated the entire town somewhere between 800 and 900 CE.
Vuolle is then backed up by his wife Márjánna sharing the same legend, but Ashley (who is not a local) dismisses the entire thing as nonsense and doesn't want to hear more about it..
Flowers are much more effective than old legends steeped in dubious lore... I can only assume he's not to serious about this, given that his wife is also present...
Over by the art institute, Inge just passed her exam with flying colours. Hooray.
Samantha was already seated by a desk in the back of the room when Inge entered. Inge tried to get eye contact, but Samantha was seemingly busy carefully laying out her pencils on the desk while waiting for the cue to open the exam papers...
Samanthas new appearance didn't make Inge any less curious and she still wanted to become better friends with her. Well, that and after they had connected so well just the other day, she couldn't just begin to ignore her.. Inge knew very well what it meant to be ignored, so she couldn't do that to anyone almost no matter how different they were.. So there was only one thing to do, to brave it and approach Samantha...
As it was raining pretty heavily by the time their exam ended, Inge thought it best to invite her home to do Inges favore thing, to watch tv sitting on the couch, instead of going fishing. That was atleast one of the reasons Inge told herself to justify not going fishing alone with Samantha..
While Inge and Samantha is fast on their way to the De Anda Hall, its time for Oliver Freddy to put away the book about plantsims and head for his exam in the science building just across the road.. and maybe on the way he will get an answer to the question of whether it is most fruitful to run or walk through the rain.. what keeps you most dry? :P
Samantha would no doubt win that competion. Not only is she using an umbrella, she is also a much faster runner.. Inge has to struggle to keep up. Such power! Inge is impressed, but also a little intimidated by her new friend.
When they arrive at the dorm Samantha announces that she is hungry like a .. well, you know. Inge doesn't want to upset Samantha, so she immediately goes to prepare the best lunch meal she can make, a fine omelette with mushrooms..
All those hours spent watching the cooking channel on tv has paid off. Samantha really enjoys the meal in umm... her own way, and Inge gets her wish and Samantha accepts her as one of her best and most trusted friends.
After they are now both well fed, they can do what Inge wants to do. Watch tv and talk about homes and family...
While they are watching tv, Oliver Freddy returns home from his exam after having passed with flying colours as well (like he knew he would), and now finally is the time for him to arrange a bonfire party.. Rain or shine, though he hopes the rain will let up soon...
He's not going all out with the extravagant coloured lights and decorations like his girlfriend Inge did, but the juice keg is still there, along with a buffet table and the mandatory plastic cups.. now placed on a shelf instead of a table, so that people won't complain about the table being unaccessible when they want to eat because a plastic cup was in the way....
Samantha was of course also invited to the party, since she was already in the building and since she had made such good friends with Inge. After they had finished watching tv she decided to tell a joke at her own expense. She can do that, not sure if anyone else should. :P
Inge appreciates that Samantha is able to laugh at herself for being different, as well as appreciating that Samantha has enough trust in Inge to tell such a joke, and decides to give her a warm and friendly hug.
Guests should be arriving soon, so it's time for Oliver Freddy to light the fire and serve the food, hoping that the fire won't be put out by the rain...
It took a while for the rain to let up, and I think Oliver Freddy must have been worried about his party guests being hungry, because he had decided to order a pizza while everyone was still inside filling the hallway with random university slogan cheers.. :P
Inge had been in the dining room conversing and joking with Samantha when Debbie Richards joined the conversation.
Meanwhile the rain had come to an end, and Oliver Freddy had gotten a pretty decent bonfire going. Now the party could begin as intended..
Inge had gone outside to check out the bonfire, which left Samantha alone with Debbie. Samantha then wanted to say hi to Debbie in her own way, but Debbie wasn't to appreciative of this and now it was Samanthas turn to be put in her place...
This proved to be a pretty big wedge in the relationship between Samantha and Debbie, and Samantha would take to dislike Debbie for atleast the rest of the evening... Time to head outside and join the others watching the fire...
Now that Inge had become good friends with Samantha, she walked inside to greet Nicole and give her a second chance after she ditched them before the last time they tried to hang out..
Inges talking to Nicole was interrupted by Oliver Freddy finally deciding to serve the pizza and have everyone sit down to eat..
There was an empty seat next to Debbie, but Samantha sure as hell wasn't going to use that one!
Sitting next to Nicole, though she had her quirks, was much better...
Billy Jean Sparks was sitting on a table all alone as she confessed her interest in Jonathan Dirk.. and I don't know where the sandwich came from.. :P
I didn't see Billy Jean try to make a move on him, though, nor did she cause a scene.. Maybe she is just a girl who thinks he is the one.... or maybe she just followed some strong advice, and remembered to always think twice... :P
After everyone had eaten it was time to gather around the and enjoy the warmth from the fire outside again. The rest of the party went by relatively peacefully, noone passed out on the lawn, the police didn't arrive to do a lousy job and contrary to what I had expected there wasn't a single streaker in sight... Almost a stark contrast to the party Inge threw earlier, but as long as everyone had a good time, that is what matters the most.
Oliver Freddy wasn't done sciencing, and wanted to perform some tests on Debbie, which included testing her reflexes. Good catch! :P
..and then he went inside to study on the computer! Come on, man.. what are you doing? You're done for the semester, this has no purpose!
"I'm just trying to get a head start for the next semester..."
Right, well, as you wish...
People outside were still enjoying the bonfire, and Inge was thinking about the fishing trip with Samantha.. Now that it didn't rain, however, it was probably a little late for that now..
Even though Inge got out of bed after her boyfriend, she felt like she had been up since early morning, and decided to call it a night...
Oliver Freddy was also getting tired, but now that Inge had gone to bed he thought he could take his turn to bond with Samantha as well.
Or so I thought, because the next thing he does is pretty bold as he asks her for a DNA sample.. It appears that everything he does one way or another revolves around science.. I'm also surprised that Samantha actually lets him do it.. I would have imagined that she wouldn't just let her DNA get sampled like that, like she was some kind of object to be performed research upon...
I suppose Oliver Freddy being Inges boyfriend would automatically give him a few trust points...
Well, congratulations Oliver Freddy.. with this sample, maybe you can learn something about a Grey's anatomy.... He is a medical student after all, and if he can figure out something useful, it might be of benefit to the Greys too...
The party was coming to an end soon, and people were just about to leave when Samantha went inside to give Ruby Parks a last helping hand with juice keg.. and being very vocal about what she thought about Debbie..
That was pretty much the last of it. There were a few that didn't enjoy the party as much, but Ruby, Samantha and Debbie could all agree that atleast they had a good time.
It was now only Jeffrey Dean and Che Justice still wanted to keep the fire going, but as Oliver Freddy has also joined his girlfriend in bed, I think its time this one ends here and we'll see them again tomorrow when they go back to Sunset Valley for summer...
Good night.
I can take all the blame, for the sake of my name
Our blood on your hands, running hot in the veins
They say: "Do yourself well and stay away from your family" - what!?
Wildfire, part II: One with the mountain – Sonata Arctica
Sub blogs: #01 Sunset Valley. #02: Lake Onebega #03: Sprottenham #04: Bewickton
It's a lovely June morning by the lake as the last of the migratory birds have returned to the mountains for the summer..
..and Inge and Oliver Freddy are looking sweet in their sleep.
Inge wakes up first to check her report card, and it's no secret she did well, even in the course about the theory of song, which was, luckily just theory and not practice. Hooray! Just not so loud, your boyfriend is still sleeping!
Then it's time for breakfast where she sits down next to Jonathan Dirk. He didn't need to read a fortune cookie to know that this was going to be a special day for him.. (but in the days waiting for his exam results he had frantically done so anyway, and secretly browsing the web for any horoscope he could find!
Ayana had received the same positive news as Jonathan this morning, that she too had passed her final exam, and would later be awarded her diploma for her degree in communication. No more studying, and soon it will be time to find a job.. but first she thought she could finally get to clean up this place a little.
Inge would then seize the opportunity while her boyrfriend was still sleeping to finish the painting she started just before christmas last year. It was a pretty big painting, so it took a long time to complete..
When Oliver Freddy woke up to check his exam results he was equally as nervous as his girlfriend, but he wouldn't need to worry to much. No doubt would his mom (and probably his aunt too) be very proud of these results. :P
Their report card.
Simnavn = Sim name.
Karakter for semester = Semester grade.
Studiepoeng = Credits (Literal: Study points).
Totalkarakter = Total grade.
Kunst = Art.
Medisin = Medicine. (... surprised? :P)
Kommunikasjon = Communication.
Teknologi = Technology.
Økonomi = Finance.
Idrett = Sports.
Skip Taylor didn't do very well. I don't know what he has been up to, but he can't have been studying much.. maybe if he got rid of those sun glasses he is always wearing he would be able to actually read something.
Inge reached level 8 of the painting skill and just manage to finish her painting, which she named simply "Sunset in December", and hang it up on the wall before the graduation ceremony started. She wasn't perfectly happy about it though, thinking it looked pretty average. Next time, she thought, maybe she should use more oil paint and less water color. She thought it looked a little to much like something she could have painted when she was still in elementary school, but then again, one is always ones own worst critic.. I think it's fine. A little pink, but fine.
This is a big day for Ayana and Jonathan. Don't be nervous, it's just a graduation ceremony.. it will be just fine.
Professor Madeleine Noetal is always happy to watch students graduating. :P
Entering their graduation ceremony. So cute.
Relax man! I'm sure it'll be alright! You're graduating! This is a day of joy and celebration!
Of course, Inge and Oliver Freddy joined them as well to watch their graduation ceremony.
There were many graduates and the ceremony took quite a while to finish, so while it was going on I made an attempt to zoom in and capture what went on outside, but unfortunately then the skies came tumbling down and the mainframe of the Matrix crashed to it's desktop and whatever happened out there was forever erased from the mysterious aether before it could even begin to be etched into the stones of history.....
Fortunately, though, a back up system was in place and Ayana and Jonathan still got their diplomas, with Jonathan claiming afterwards to have had one of those strange déjà vu moments that he sometimes has.. Well, I don't know... I have no idea what he is talking about there...
Ayana is so cute, she even kisses her diploma.
Oliver Freddy and Inge both took their turns to congratule the newly graduates afterwards, and have a bit of talk with them.
It was such a happy day and the sun was shining.
In the background romance may befinding Ayana, as she was approached by Matthew Tellmer who began to flirt with her. A sign of what is to come, or maybe not. I suppose anything could happen, so who knows what the future will bring to Ayana and Jonathan from now on...
Inge had no time to think about that, she had to run off to meet Samantha to go fishing. Though Inges mom Iselin is an avid sports fisher, Inge is pretty clueless... She had no idea which spot to pick, so she chose the Landeberg Park, the most remote place around she could think of. There would have to be some fish there, right? Oliver Freddy went along to in his own car, and he drove a little faster so he's already running ahead (He is there somewhere in the distance if you can spot him.. :P)
Samantha didn't need to be asked twice to meet up. Spending the afternoon outside fishing in this beautiful weather was a perfect thing to do.
While the girls were meeting up and talking, Oliver Freddy had gone around to find them something that could be used for bait. The apple tree that grew there was glaringly obvious, but he was afraid it wouldn't be enough, so after a bit of searching through various brambles and bushes he managed to find a small cinnamon plant. It sounds a little experimental to use cinnamon as bait for fish, but who knows, it might work. :P
Then it was time for fishing. Inge and Oliver Freddy picked their spots a little apart to not fish on top of each other, but Samantha had another idea. :P
"I'll fish right over here" she says, and I'm worried she's gonna whack Inge over the head with the fishing rod, or worse. :P
"Just stand still while I make my throw. This looks like a really good spot, and I'm not gonna let you have it all to yourself!"
"Et voilá!" she says confidently after making her throw. I'm not really sure how she did that, but she sure makes it look easy.
It's Oliver Freddy however that catches the first umm.. fish. A freshwater jelly fish.. it's probably best used to do experiments on. I don't think it's something you would take to the frying pan, possibly, maybe. :P
It doesn't take long for Samantha to catch a blowfish, which is a more valuable type of fish than the jelly fish, which places Samantha in the lead in case one should view this as a competition. Inge might need to dry off her clothes when they are done fishing, because Samantha pulled the fish up dangerously close to Inges.. feet. :P
Inge thinks it's enough with the fishing when Samantha catches her second blowfish in excactly the same way and decides to call it quits. "Alright.. you win..."
The sun is about to set, and so it won't be long until Inge and Oliver Freddys transport will arrive to take them back home. Inge wants to use this last moment to bond a little more, talk about the semester that passed, and of course, the first time she noticed Oliver Freddy on the school bus back home in Sunset Valley.
Oliver Freddy has something else on his mind, and does his best to ruin this otherwishe beautiful moment with a a rant about politicians and their spending of the tax payers money..
Then it's time to say the final goodbye before summer and the girls exchange their last warm hug before Oliver Freddy and Inge has to return to their dorm where the car is waiting...
"You take care, Samantha. I'll see you again in august..."
Samantha howled her last goodbye at them as she watched them run to their cars. It quickly gets cold in the mountains after the sun has set, even in summer...
"I'll be thinking about you..."
Back at the dorm Inge was happy thinking about returning to her own family soon. Happy about the new memories and friends she had made this semester, and happy about the thought of returning for the next one! Of course, she would be missing Samantha too, especially, so there were definately mixed feelings about leaving, but it still had to be done.. and a summer doesn't last forever anyway.
Oliver Freddy was already in the car waiting, and the driver pressed the horn.. He wasn't going to drive all night and wanted to get there before it got to late.. Time to go now... Time to hit the road and say goodbye..
Goodbye student dorm and smelly food leftovers. Goodbye Jeffery, goodbye Debbie and goodbye Nicole. Goodbye Ayana, goodbye Jonathan and best of luck for your future!
Goodbye Samantha, goodbye University, goodbye lake, goodbye mountains and stones...
Goodbye..
Bonus:
A couple of screenshots that didn't make it.
Paper meets rock...
Driving in the moonlight..
Sub blogs: #01 Sunset Valley. #02: Lake Onebega #03: Sprottenham #04: Bewickton
Chapter 20.7 – Sunset Valley – June 2023: I must be in love with an alien... part I
The Kelly Family – Fell in love with an alien
...and hello Sunset Valley. The town showed itself from its more rainy side as they arrived from the mountains..
It takes a while to drive from the lake to Sunset Valley, and since it was so late and Ranveig and Robert Bråge was likely already in bed, Inge invited Oliver Freddy to spend the night at her and her parents house. Now that it looked like it was raining more than ever they just had to sit outside and watch the clouds drift by for a while before getting inside...
Inge happily greeted her sister Kristina as she walked into their old bedroom to go to sleep in her old bed.
The guest bed was occupied by Inges mom Iselin taking a nap for some reason, so Oliver Freddy had to make do temporarily with the couch in the living room downstairs. This made it look like there had been a recent fight between Inges parents, but I guess not, because as soon as they woke up everything looked just fine as they kept repeatedly flirting with each other and exchanging flowers...
Or maybe this was just their way of making up, I don't know. It's hard to tell what happened when I seemingly land right in the middle of something.
The Reppe family is probably the most family oriented family, because when they youngest one Emmy is in need of something, they all queue up to help out. Yes, even Jarle did eventually, even though he's not in this picture. He will often sit in the bedroom reading right next to Emmy, which is just really good parenting.
Oh, wait.. well, ok, you can have that one I guess, just don't do that to often.. or I'll act like a repo man and take that one away too...
Now that Jarle and Iselin aren't using the beds anymore, Oliver Freddy has gone upstairs to sleep, but then Inge wakes up to watch tv on the couch and just sit up in the middle of the night drinking coffee.. She's not really a night owl, but acts like one often anyway when left completely to her own control.
Inges notes:
Sometimes when I'm at home at my parents house especially I just wake up in the middle of the night and can't fall back asleep no matter how hard I try.. It's a little hard to relax in this house, so.. and I figure there's no use in lying there staring at the ceiling waiting, so I might as well just get up to watch some tv and have a coffee.. you know..?
Narrators notes:
Well, not really, but ok...
Over at the Motorsen house there is another one that got up early to watch tv as Ranveig has sat down on her chair in the hallway upstairs to watch old morning reruns of her favorite romance tv-show for the nth time... Everything is by the usual here..
Eventually Robert Bråge woke up and they went downstairs to have a nice breakfast of french toast leftovers before Robert Bråge sat down by the computer to continue writing his science fiction novel, "A train through time". Ranveig sent Oliver Freddy a message wanting to know where he was since she hadnt heard from him and since he didn't come home last night.
It's unlikely that Oliver Freddy would be reading this message since he was still asleep in the guest bed over at Inges parents house. :P
Like Oliver Freddy earlier, Ranveig had made sure to buy a tumble drier for her home without thinking that a laundry machine might also be useful, so when the dirty clothes piled up she still had no choice but to pay a visit to the local laundromat...
Over at the laundromat she meets up with Hogne Nielsen, Ingrids boyfriend, to talk fondly about her favorite tv shows.. Her favorite scenes are of course the ones where everyone gets married and lives happily ever after.. a stark contrast to her own life...
This Hogne Nielsen guy, if I am to be honest, I never liked him since I first saw him and it annoys me that he is Ingrids boyfriend, however I will let fate run its course... Of course, once he learnt about Ranveigs favorite tv shows, he put two and two together and probably thought this was a good chance to take advantage of the single mother, and immediately began flirting with her and handing her flowers.. Romance, finally! Of course Ranveig got weak in the knees for a moment there and couldn't immediately say no..
It has always been a sore spot for Ranveig to watch her younger sister and brothers get married and have successfull romantic relationships (atleast from the outside perspective), when she, as the oldest sister hasn't even been married...
Ranveig knew that accepting flirtatious behaviour from him probably wasn't the best idea, not just because he was much younger than her, but also because he was still coupled with Ingrid.. She found an excuse to put him aside when she received a reply from Oliver Freddy that their journey home had gone by without hassle and that he was all well and good over at Inges house. The perfect message at the right time to put the anxious mothers heart at ease, and so she could push Hogne aside for a while and foucs on picking up her clean clothes and get out of there...
Back at the house Robert Bråge had just finished his first novel at 150 pages long and received the title "Amateur writer" from the local business association. Not bad at all for a 13 year old. :P Being who he is, he wanted to spend the rest of the day outdoors and so he called his friend Margrethe to hang out at the park.
After finishing her laundry, Ranveig wanted to get pumped so she ran down the road to the gym to do some strength training by the stereo on the second floor. Ingrids father Jonathan is seen working out in the background to the right.
His wife Kathrine (5 months pregnant) may have been working out too, as she was seen leaving the gym in her fitness wear.
People were enjoying this nice day out in the park when Robert Bråge met up with Margrethe to discuss the latest issue of his favorite cartoon. His aunt Monica and his cousin Lise Veronica is seen on the swings in the background.
--
Over at Inges parents house, Inge and Kristina was still walking around in their sleepwear when Tori Kimura came over to visit to sit down and watch tv. :P
At the park Margrethe had began flirting with Robert and what was initially just a friendly meeting became a date...
Robert then thought it would be a good idea to take his now date over to go bowling, and then later perhaps watch a movie...
..or maybe they should go to the prom tonight, as Margrethe asked Robert to slow dance to the pop music that was playing over the speakers and told him she didn't have anyone to go with for prom to night. I didn't know there was a prom night again.. it looks like they like their prom nights in the Sim world. Of course Robert took the hint and asked her to go with him, though her reply was a little strange... :P
"It might happen that I get abducted by aliens before the ball, and then it might happen that I won't come. I would like to go with you, but remember that this can happen at any time."
I'll interpret that as a maybe...
".. aliens? What!? Now she's just trying to play games with me.. she was the one that brought it up in the first place. I had completely forgotten about prom night to be honest.. but I heard she said she would like to go, so she will probably want to go with me.... right? I don't know, but I guess I'll just have to... see what happens.. girls man, why are they always so strange?"
Robert kept an optismistc mind as Margrethe continued to ask him to slow dance, saying she needed practice.. "..practice? Practice for what?" he thought, but he accepted her invitations to dance, because he thought if he didn't she probably wouldn't want to go with him..
Oliva Ursine (she is Claire and Jareds daughter) and Mortimer Goth had entered the bowling alley while they were slow dancing, and during her bowling Olivia had noticed them dancing and wanted to have a word with Robert as well...
She was instantly captivated as she talked to him, and thought in herself that it would have been much better if he would slow dance with her instead of Margrethe.. Robert didn't know what to do. He couldn't ask Olivia as well, when he had already asked Margrethe.. He felt this was a little awkward and unpleasant, but he couldn't do anything but continue to slow dance with Margrethe..
"Please help me, I know you're watching...."
Sorry, I don't want to do that... I can't do that... He asked Margrethe first.. you'll probably find a prom date some other time... This isn't the first, and it probably won't be the last either..
"You don't understand...." Olivia sobbed as she was forced to watch them continue their slow dance before running off to get ready for prom night...
Robert: I think we'll have to go to my place soon... I think that's where the limo will arrive... you're still coming with me are you?
Margrethe: Well.. did you see any aliens?
Robert: No... so you're coming then?
Margrethe: I think the aliens might come if we're not leaving soon..
Robert: ....
Robert: You're weird, let's go...
While the young teenagers hurry out the door to Mosquite Cove where the limo supposedly (hopefully...) will arrive to transport them to the school ball, Ranveig is still at the gym working out, Tori has left the Reppe residence again to go home and Oliver Freddy has now taken over the tv watching while his girlfriend is practicing tricks on the ball in the background...
Sub blogs: #01 Sunset Valley. #02: Lake Onebega #03: Sprottenham #04: Bewickton
Margrethe and Robert had some time to kill watching tv while waiting for the limo to arrive. The narrator had some doubts of whether or not this would work, when they after a good hour of watching tv suddenly get up and put on their finest clothing and run out the door to go to the school ball...
They're looking quite nice, I must say, though the weather is not as it just started to hail.. so I hope the limo is nearby...
Turns out it isn't, because they run.. and they run.. and once they approach the school it looks like there is no limo waiting for them, and that they're going to run all the way.. Sounds like the prom is getting started in there already, because I can hear the bass from inside, but they keep runnin'.. and runnin', runnin', and runnin', runnin'....
Then I see the limo... it's parked between Lise Veronica and Kleopatras house... The limo driver must have completely misunderstood the directions...
"Well, there are so many similar last names around town.. it's no wonder I get confused.. You expect me to know the difference between the Motorsen household, the Motor-Notesen household and the Motor-Karlsen household? Give me a break..."
Yeah, I kinda do.... that's your job.. your ride may be as smooth as a limousine, but you're not excactly ahead of the curves... now shut up and drive!
Now imagine if they hadn't found the limo, or if there hadn't been one there at all.. then they might have been left to stand out in the hail instead.. one can only hope then that Margrethe would have been so kind to let Robert stand under her umbrella a little bit too...
Luckily it didn't go that way, and they all got the prom this time too, and even if the weather outside was a drab, inside the sun would probably be shining, so they could all shine together and have a good time.
With her youngest son now on his first date and prom night Ranveig decided to go upstairs to relax in the sauna after her workout, from where she could enjoy a nice view of the surrounding trees and the backyard of the laundromat. :P
..and the prom night begin the pop ups again. And just like last time, when the same question was popped by Kristina to Lise Veronica, I just can't make myself say no, so now there is another teenage couple in town! :P
..and something tells me this night is going to go down excactly like last time, just with a different couple.
Romance happened elsewhere to, as Inge shyly stole a kiss from Oliver Freddy, much to her mothers amusement.
It's saturday night and the kids aren't the only one that should enjoy a night out, so Ranveig invites her sister Monica out to eat at the Corsican Bistro while Oliver Freddy and Inge called for a taxi to take them to the Garage pub downtown for some pizza and drinks..
Meanwhile Robert Bråge was having a splendid time at the prom.. Chemistry is not just found at the bar when the mixologist is doing their thing.. :P But in general its always the same, one thing reacting to another with sometimes mixed results.. the results look good here, though.. :P
Oliver Freddy ordered the pizza, but well, sometimes it can be difficult to understand the concept of enjoying a meal together as he went to eat his piece by the bar at the concert venue in the basement..
Inge was left alone to eat her piece upstairs right next to Lisa Bunch that was finding some love for the night with Hank Goddard-Wan...
Monica thanked Ranveig for the invitiation, but said she would rather be home since her daughter was at the prom...There would be plenty of other opportunities for them to dine out, and when Ranveig got to think about it, she agreed..
"Monica has a point.. with our kids at the prom it's probably best to stay home waiting for them for when they come home, or in case something else should happen..."
Well, that's what she s.. thought, but by the time Robert Bråge came home from a successful night at the prom she was already in bed. A big meal after several hours of strength workout at the gym and a hot sauna bath would probably make anyone struggle to keep awake.. :P
Robert Bråge is a nice kid and followed his moms example shortly thereafter, and this leaves only Inge and Oliver Freddy still up enjoying their own little slow dance over at the pub.
Both of them had several thoughts about babies and children this night, and the scene looked as romantic as slow dancing at the local rock pub can be, which gave me hopes of a.. hmm.. happy ending.. :P
Oh, this time was certainly one for romance, because while they were still slow dancing I got a message that Amena had just been on a date with Marty Keaton! My initial thought is good news, but.. on second thought, should you be doing that, Amena?
This does remind me though that I should check up on Amena and George and how the building of their new house is going, however I think I'll save that for the next update since it's already getting a little late here.
Back at the pub I do think it looks like the night is going to end well when Inge asks Oliver Freddy to watch the stars, but then..
..Inge gets a seemingly random impulse and runs out the door and heads back home just like that...
The pub was far from closing, so this leaves me and Oliver Freddy both a little confused.. what was that? Did she suddenly get 'cold feet'? That was certainly an abrupt and unexpected ending to an otherwise perfect night..Oh well, not much left for Oliver Freddy to do now but head back home as well.. Women! Why are they so strange?
So umm.. yeah, good night.
The prom gang:
Like last time when there was a prom, I'm gonna have the teenagers pose a little.
Margrethe and Robert Bråge before entering the prom.
The prom couples. Lise Veronica and Kristina to the left. Margrethe and Robert Bråge to the right.
The teenagers that haven't gotten a prom date so far. Left to right: Kleopatra, Bjørn-Yngve and Olivia.
All of them. :P
Margrethe and Robert Bråges prom photo.
Sub blogs: #01 Sunset Valley. #02: Lake Onebega #03: Sprottenham #04: Bewickton
Alright, well, now that half of the year has passed for the southern Sunset Valley people it's time to move north again to a more 'middle of the country' type of place, the small coastal community known as Sprottenham (which I took my username after, not the other way around!).
This also puts us back at the start of the new year and in the month of january, and as we zoom in on the town and towards the Chitrakaar family house, we pass by the White Peal Memorial Lighthouse as it stands steadfast shining it's light throuh the dark winter night and towards the black oceans, as it has done for a little over one and a half century now... Of course, it's interior have been modernized a few times since then, but the exterior still stands as it does when it was first built to replace the old lighthouse..
Now, inside the house Gaute is as always the first one to wake up to get ready for his job at the military base. The kitchen looks just like it does when they left it in a hurry to travel to Bewickton over christmas and new year to visit Leyas father Deepak who was in the hospital...
It's an absolute filthy mess, because there was no time to clean. Leya felt it was urgent since her fathers health was on the line, and they had to pack what they could and go fast... Gaute doesn't have much time to clean either, a quick breakfast meal is all he can do, before he has to run out the door and get to work..
The dining room is in a similar state as Leya comes downstairs with Orinder and Bodil sits to eat her breakfast before going to school. It smells pretty bad, so once Bodil is out the door Leya will have lots of cleaning to do...
While Leya is inside cleaning, some of the towns folk are heading to the park nearby to enjoy this fine day, such as the Dahl-Blankblomst family as seen here.
The parents are Daniel and Leni, and the toddlers are.. umm....
Now I have been a little forgetful here, but after checking up on it afterwards I found that Daniel was carrying their firstborn son called Torgeir, while Leni was having their last born Jonn in the stroller.
Solvej Rasmussen has entered the park too, to do her own rockin' thing.
Agathi Jiggens is out on a stroll with her son Ruben.
The day moves on and after lots of housework, Leya finally finds time to sit down and eat lunch...
Gaute is finished at work, and on the way home he decides to buy a new modern old fashioned stereo for the living room.
And as soon as he enters the door at home, he picks up the phone to call his long time childhood friend Selma Vaddelmyr to show off his new stereo..
Leya has gone to paint, and finished a painting called "The Flamingo Stork" at a value of 244 simoleons.
Time to bring out the guitar. Leya can be quite rockin' too.
Then Selma arrives and rings the doorbell, so it's time to turn on the stereo and get the dance moves going.
He goes out in the hallway to dance with her (for some reason not in the living room where the stereo is) just in time for Bodil to arrive home from school and find them there.
"Hi Gaute... why are you dancing with Selma? Where's mom?" Bodil didn't like what she saw. Gaute should be dancing with mom, not Selma. Was history going to repeat itself? She hoped not... Gaute had been such a good stepfather. Was he going to do like her dad did and ruin it all again?
"Oh, just for old times sake.. this is how we used to dance when we were young.. Mom's in the hobby room playing guitar."
"Ok... I'll go to mom and do my homework..."
---
While Bodil did her homework and Gaute was still dancing with Selma, Leya wanted to have Orinder finish the final stretch and learn how to walk. While she does so, eventually Selma and Gaute stop dancing to walk into the living room. Leyas teaching of Orinder ends in success, and they're both happy about that.. The world just got bigger for the little one, but the world may change in other ways, too...
Gaute has always been a party animal and fond of women, that's no secret, and maybe there is more to his history with Selma that goes a little beyond them just being old childhood friends...
"What are you doing!? You can't do this to me now..."
Leya was very tempted to walk straight up to Selma and shout at her, but kept her cool and retreated back to the hobby room to start another painting instead.. Bodil still hasn't seen what happened, and it would probably be better if they could stop doing whatever they're doing before she finds out..
After Bodil had finished her homework and played some more computer games with grandma (Laranya: age 70) on the computer she got for christmas, she wants to head to the festival park to do some ice skating.
Back at home in the living room Gaute hasn't excactly stopped his flirtatious behaviour. They had even been sitting down to watch the romance channel together for a while...
Bodil is still unaware of all this as she has turned to snowboarding, still enjoying her time in the park...
..and Leya practices her painting, ignoring it all for now...
Orinder had now crawled up on the couch to continue watching the romance channel that was still on. Just don't learn anything from the adults behaviour...
A long day at the park at left Bodil tired and it was time to go home, just in time for curfew to set in.
When Bodil came home to ask her mom for a good night story (she wasn't going to ask Gaute this time.. and why was Selma still here?) the adults had gathered out in the backyard to talk under the night sky as a faint northern light was seen in the distance...
Then suddenly there was a new baby in town. Frigg just gave birth to a little girl called Randi. Again I can't have been paying much attention, because I didn't know she was pregnant.. but hey, good news, the towns population grew again.
This is Odin, the (all-)father. :P
Back at the Chitrakaar-Bråheim household Gaute rushes inside to go to bed, since he has been up since early morning.. Selma has found a dirty plate and goes to clean it in her own way...
Leya reads Bodil a bedtime story about a young girl called Bella who went missing, and Bodil has once again chosen to go to sleep in the guest bed instead of the bed in her own bedroom...
Downstairs Selma might just be trying to weasel her way into the family, as she has picked up Orinder to sit on her lap..
When Leya comes back downstairs, Selma has to be careful, so she puts Orinder back down so Leya can pick him up and put him in his crib...
It's bedtime now for this household, so you have to leave..
"Goodbye and goodnight Selma..."
"....oh, and by the way.... don't come back... I don't need your 'help' with the dishes..."
Goodnight.
Other happenings:
Anne-Gerd Jørgensen, whom I thought would remain single for life has finally found love in one of the towns vehicle enthusiasts.. a fast and furious rubber burning 'frenchman' called Leon Maneval. He would certainly know how to handle the curves and take her for a ride, I'm sure... Kids.. look away! (..and don't cross the street...)
Sub blogs: #01 Sunset Valley. #02: Lake Onebega #03: Sprottenham #04: Bewickton
Chapter 21.1 – Sprottenham – February 2023: (Almost) no news is good news...?
The shortest month of the year went by relatively fast and without any real major events..
Bodil woke up this morning and was excited about cooking recipes..
Leya and Gaute both had to sleep in this morning, so there was noone there to tell her to eat breakfast before going to school. Instead she played queen for a while by the dining table until the school bus honked and it was time to go. The mailman was angry this morning as Leya and Gaute was late with paying their bills again...
Bodil greets her friend Samira Klinemann before entering the school building.
Gaute feels a little guilty about his flirting with Selma last month and decides to lay low with that for a while, hoping to forget about it.. He still wants to kiss Selma for a while, but the wish fades eventually..
Leya wakes up to practice her drawing skills and feed Orinder.
Bodil isn't to interested in the hospital she got for a christmas gift..
"The hospital was a really stupid gift. I'm almost twelve! I stopped playing with dolls a long time ago! Grandpa probably meant it well when he bought the hospital doll house, but it was a really lame gift... Doll houses are for toddlers and small kids!"
..but atleast Orinder still finds it interesting.
Gaute has found another use for the stereo, so instead of inviting Selma over once more, he distracts himself with working out, which he pretty much does for the rest of the day..
Leya decides to begin potty training for Orinder. Now that he has learnt how to walk, it would be pretty nice to relieve him off the diapers.. not to mention, to relieve the parents of having to constantly change them!
Today was excursion day at the theatre for Bodil and her class, and she leaves it just before Leya enters it to go to work.
However, they don't pass each other on the way.
When Bodil comes home from school, she wants to hang out with her friend Edny, but Edny is busy at her after school activity.. so she goes into moms hobby room to do homework again..
Baturney Flansbarne, the husband of Agathi Jiggens, just got promoted and is now a part of the town council. He went over to the Harbor café after work to celebrate it by eating cake.
His wife was on her usual daily stroll with Ruben in the park. Also in the park is police officer Jingguo Xie-Luo with one of his twins Hung Jian (if I'm not mistaken, I mean, they're twins.. :P)
It looked like spring came early to the town as Selma had gone to entertain a few people at the Harbor Park.
Her husband Christoffer was seen a little further away accompanying her on the drums. :P
Bodil went to visit her friend Edny after she had finished her afte school activity, but when she came there they had left and nobody was home.. but atleast she got a nice bike ride back and forth across town in the february sunset...
It happened from time to time that the Sævik family wasn't at home, as they would as often as they could afford it travel down to Sunset Valley to visit Ednys mom in prison...
When Bodil came back home again, she wanted to hear a good night story. Somehow she is still not to old for that.
This time Bodil chooses to have the bedtime story read for her in Leya and Gautes bed, before she goes to sleep in her own bed for a change.
When Leya gets home from work, she immediately puts Orinder in his crib before going to sleep, but Gaute picks him up again, because she forgot to feed him.. :P
"I can't believe she could be this unattentive, but don't worry little man, daddy is gonna feed you..."
So yeah, he takes him downstairs and makes sure he gets fed, before he takes him back up to the crib and goes to bed..
...and that was pretty much it, that was what happened on this most ordinary month of months. Good night.
Bonus image:
Even if Edny wasn't at home, Bodils bike trip across town also gave a nice view of the light house and the moon as it rose up to light the sea (in case the light house would be out and not do it's job...)
Sub blogs: #01 Sunset Valley. #02: Lake Onebega #03: Sprottenham #04: Bewickton
Spring hadn't arrived fully yet, as snow began to fall the night when february turned to march. The calendar also says that next month will be another birthday celebration, a double celebration even, as there are a couple of twins who will enter a new stage of their life...
Because of this, we will leave Cliffon Street behind and move across to the more rural part of town and this house by the end of Southfield Road. It's the old Frumpenheimer house (most houses in town are pretty old...) where the Rasmussen/Jensen family lives.
The parents Solvej Rasmussen and Patrik C. Jensen haven't gotten much sleep for the past 11 months or so, as their two twin daughters Lillian and Silvia have done their best to keep them awake at various times of the day...
It's not always that amusing, perhaps especially for Patrik, who isn't the most family oriented guy.
Though the parents may be tired and a little grumpy, the son of the house Rune wakes up with a good mood this morning.
It is indeed a beautiful morning as the sun rises in the east to shine it's first warming rays over the town as a sign that spring is getting a little closer eventually...
Rune grabs a simple juice for breakfast before heading to school, while Solvej prepares waffles for herself and Patrik (who is still asleep in their bedroom downstairs). Solvej and Patrik doesn't have to leave anywhere just yet, as Solvej works as a gardener now, her job is in her greenhouse right next to her home. Patrik is the captain of the local football team, the Sprottenham Totspurs, and so his job doesn't start until the afternoon.
Patrik and Solvej have been a couple for quite some years now and have so far proved everyone in town wrong when they said their relationship wouldn't last very long, because, well.. Patrik wasn't excactly known to be faithful... So as she stands there with something in the oven, she starts to think that maybe it's time they took the final step and actually got married...
When Rune enters the school I see Edny Sævik just about to walk in through the doors. She is Bodils friend whom she never got to visit yesterday because they were away. Looks like they are back again now from their visit down south..
Prison life...
Lacuna Coil - Enjoy the silence (Depeche Mode Cover)
This is inmate #256 Oda Sævik. She is serving an 8 year sentence for being an accomplice in money laundering, kidnapping and human trafficking. She is also Ednys mother...
Prison life isn't all that. The walls are grey like concrete, the days are long and there isn't much to do but play chess and spend your time thinking. Prison allows for plenty of time to think and reflect... sometimes perhaps a little to much..
Then there's always the odd inmate that tries to weird everyone out..
..but most of all, prison is a very lonely and isolated experience.. when you're far away from your family and loved ones, and some days all you want to do is sleep...
Holidays are the worst... This is how Oda spent her christmas eve...
Location: Sunset Valley Prison, Family Visiting Room, February 2023
..but every now and then, if Oda has behaved nicely, she is allowed to have a visit from her family. That's something to look forward to, something to keep her.. going...
Young baby Gøran probably doesn't understand to much of what's going on.. Toddler Kolbjørn knows his mom has done something really bad and has gone to a place far away.. Edny understands a lot more... and is very excited to meet her mom again when she hears her voice.. look behind you! It's mom!
"Oh mom... I missed you so much..."
Break the silence
Come crashing in
Into my little world
Painful to me
Pierce right through me
Can't you understand
Oh, my little girl
All I ever wanted
All I ever needed
Is here
In my arms
Words are very
Unnecessary
They can only do harm
Time is short when you have to catch up with several months of "what happened in school", and Edny has plenty of stories to tell.. about everything she has learned, all the homework she has to do, and how she is best friends with Bodil... She doesn't want to tell mom though about how the other kids sometimes haze her for having a mom in prison.. Oda knows not everything is as great as Edny says, because she has talked with her husband Vetle on the phone a few times about it already, and how he has been in meetings with the school administration about it, and how they have "promised to deal with it", because of course they have a "zero tolerance for bullying at their school", but so far not much has happened....
The middle child Kolbjørn gets some attention too. In three years time he will be old enough to have his first day at school, a moment she is very likely to miss out on... but for now, "Here comes the claw!"
...and then there's the youngest one, Gøran. To him for a long time, mom will be a far away figure living half way across the country.. and she will probably miss out on his first day of school, too.. Eight years doesn't look like much on paper maybe, but it's a long time when you have a family...
It's heartbreaking, so Oda has to spend the time she gets to be visited by her family wisely and effectively..
These are the moments she gets with her family... she better saviour them, because...
..afterwards it will be back to the grey stone walls again, weird inmates, the same daily routine of getting up at the same time, being served breakfast, chess, workout, dinner, lights out, go to sleep for another day...
Parental skills are still intact.. and soon the family has to go back to the hotel they're staying at, and Oda has to go back to her cell, but first...
..Edny wanted to hear a good night story from mom. Nobody tells a good night story like mom.. and yes, the visiting area has a bed. Not because people are allowed to sleep over, because they're not... that bed is there for other.. reasons.. though, since Oda got visited by both her husband and her kids, using it for the.. intended purpose in the time she got with them, wasn't necessarily a priority.. That's prison life... Enjoy the silence..
..now, back to reality outside...
After finishing her breakfast, Solvej wants to read a book about gardening, so she gets into her purple car to head to the library. She also wants to find a seed and harvest a wild plant, but winter time isn't the best time of year to look for seeds on the ground or harvest plants, so a quiet day at the library will have to do.
Anne-Gerd Jørgensen and Leya Chitrakaar-Bråheim are also seen at the library doing some slightly lighter reading purely for entertainment reasons. :P
Patrik then gets a change of mind regarding his career, so he calls a baby sitter for the twins before he heads to the police station to start a new career fighting crime (or maybe it's because he just likes women in uniforms, I don't know. :P ) Patriks new boss is Glenn Hoddelås, Bodils father.
He must have a good eyesight, which could probably come in handy also for his new career, as he somehow manages to spot a lizard in the snow outside. At the same time he is passed by Agathi Jiggens on the sidewalk on her daily stroll with Ruben.. she's probably heading to the park again for the third time in a row now.
Patrik hasn't given up on sports completely though, as the next thing he does is to head to the gym hoping to find someone who might be interested in having him as their personal trainer...
"Hmm, there are a couple of guys standing over there, maybe one of them will do.."
The guys are Edgar Kyllingstad, an already acquaintance of him and Agnar Bergersen, a chef at the local seafood restaurant and certified hater of art. :P
Since Edgar is already there in his sports outfit, Patrik thinks he would probably be the most interested in a good workout. Besides, he doesn't really know Agnar all that well, so asking Edgar is probably the best choice.
Edgar is more than happy to be coached by the now former captain of the local football team and Patrik is more than happy to be his coach, so the interest is mutual. Agnar probably wouldn't have been to interested as he has to run off to go to work...
Edgar was doing pretty well on the treadmill, so after a while Patrik decides to get a solid workout for himself too. :P
Outside the school Rune leaves with his friend Tatiana Maria Vanderfjert to go home to her place. Tatiana Maria is the daughter of Gabriela (nee Bedoya) and Ramger Vanderfjert, both colleagues of Leya. Ramger is, like Patrik now, a former football player of the local football team, before he switched careers to music.
At the library Solvejs reading has paid off, and she is now at level 8 in the gardening skill. She also feels the effects of lack of sleep and decides to put the book down to go home and get some rest...
Roberts new boss is of course an excellent police officer, as he even on the way home from work decided to stop by the Klinemann household to do some investigation and uh.. acquire some stolen goods after a visit to their bathroom... well, those goods are certainly stolen now! The Supersalg-Simen ("The supersale Sim") is one of the cheaper toilet types (Bargain John in english).
Rune was doing homework with Tatiana Maria in their kitchen, but wasn't to happy about it... "School sucks.. Not only do we have to sit still inside school all day, but afterwards when we get home we even have to do homework! That shouldn't be allowed! We should force adults to do homework too..."
Solvej didn't get much of her needed rest when she came home, because the baby sitter had done a pretty terrible job with the twins.. If she could have, she would have given him the boot, but of course, he was much to quick to run out the door after she paid him and by the time she noticed what a lazy bum he had been, it was to late...
"Hey... will join me in skipping school tomorrow?" Rune still wasn't very happy about school...
"No..." Tatiana said... "I kind of like school, you know.. and I don't want to get in trouble with mom and dad. Don't you?"
"Nah, I think it'll be alright. Mom didn't go to school when she was a kid."
"What?" Tatiana was surprised. "Why not? How could your mom not go to school?"
"Mom was taught at home by her parents" Rune explained. "That's how they used to do it where mom is from."
"That's weird..." Tatiana said. "Parents aren't meant to be teachers, that's the teachers job."
If Solvej had raised Rune all on her own, she might have chosen to do homeschooling for him, to better instill in him the correct values of taking care of nature and spreading love and peace to the world.. however, Patrik also had a say in this, and he was of a different opinion, so she had accepted to have Rune enrolled in school for now. Also, with taking care of the twins lately there wouldn't have been much time or energy left to make sure Rune learnt what he needed to anyway...
After the kids have finished their homework, Tatiana sits down in the living room to watch tv, while Rune walks upstairs to check under her bed to see if there are monsters...
"Hmm.. oh, yikes!" .. and there were! He suspected there were, when he heard them hissing and breathing as soon as he opened the door to her bedroom, but he didn't think they would be this terrifying! With red glowing eyes and skin like rotting meat!
He thought he could almost smell them from underneath the bed (or maybe all this means that it just hasn't been cleaned there for a while.. so remember to always clean under your bed to prevent monsters from growing! :P )
"That certainly isn't a good place to sleep...." he thought after he had ran out of the room and heard footsteps behind him.. but the footsteps weren't anything dangerous. It was Tatianas mom Gabriela that had just come home from her job at the theatre and wanted to tell him a funny story about a guy at work that brushed his teeth so much he almost had no teeth left!
That was of course the funniest thing Rune has ever heard.
The mental image he got of a man sitting at his workdesk without a single tooth in his mouth was to much to handle... :P
Gabriela was funny and nice, he though, so he wanted her to read him a bedtime story.. in their bedroom, not Tatianas bedroom, because of the monsters...
Gabriela then wanted to play a goodnight lullaby for him, but that was a little to much...
At the gym Patrik had finished his workout and was approached by a paparazzi that wanted to dance with him. Of course, Patrik didn't decline.
Solvej was near the brink of exhaustion at home, as she was doing her best to get naps and take care of the babies...
Tatianas father Ramger was home as well, and was reading Tatiana a bedtime story.
Rune had decided to brave it and ask Gabriela for another bedtime story, this time in Tatianas bed..
They must not like sleep in this household though, because after finishing the bedtime story Ramger did excactly the same thing as his wife and started playing the guitar for Tatiana.
It was way past curfew for Rune, and if he were to get any sleep he couldn't stay there so he had to hop on his bike and get back home..
"I hope mom and dad won't be mad at me for getting home this late..."
Well, he was lucky there. Patrik hadn't even noticed he was out as he went straight to bed after returning from the gym and Solvej was much to exhausted from taking care of the twins and was out like a light when she finally could go to sleep..
So it was no problem for Rune to sneak inside the house to his room and go to bed....
Goodnight.
Sub blogs: #01 Sunset Valley. #02: Lake Onebega #03: Sprottenham #04: Bewickton
"The Frumpenheimer House" by night, peaceful and quiet on the outside...
It's another month in the Jensen /Rasmussen household and the parents once more wake up in the middle of the night to the high pitched voice of one of their infants..
Patrik seizes the moment to have a very early breakfast (or a late night meal depending on how you view it), leaving Solvej downstairs to take care of the babies.. Solvej is not very amused.
They only a get a few short moments of sleep before it's up again to start the new day..
Having babies is a 24/7 job.. the always flirtatious Patrik still manages to keep a good mood between the parents, though..
The twins birthday (Lillian and Silvia) falls on a saturday this year, so everyone will have the day off, except Solvej that doesn't have any fixed work hours. Solvej job is in the greenhouse, and the plants in there are in great need of some attention to pull weeds and harvest their growth...
It's a good thing then, that Solvej has such a green thumb.
Now, Patrik likes green things too, however his kind is the one usually played sports on, as he decided to spend his time off watching the lates game of Simmerican foot-to-handball on tv.
Rune spent his morning sleeping in after staying up late over at Tatiana Marias house and didn't notice his father was up until after he finished his breakfast and cleaned up.. "Morning, dad.."
Solvej had delegated the task of inviting guests and fixing the cakes to the birthday party to Patrik. Since he kept evading caring for the twins, he had to do something.. Solvej wasn't any less tired than he was...
Guests begin arriving shortly after the invitation was sent out (as do the rain..), and the first guests to show up are Leo Xie-Luo and Elisa Meek. Most of the guests invited were kids that are friends of Rune. Leo is the oldest son of Jingguo and Dongmei and Elisa is an orphan living at the orphanage ran by the Westgård family (they have practically adopted these kids and made them their family).
They're quickly followed by Karoline Gundersen and Samira Klinemann. Karoline is married to Kabelo Gundersen (birth name Kabelo Okalake, so he took her last name after marriage). They have one son together, Alexander Gundersen. Samira is the daughter of Chansa Klinemann (nee Beadoux) and Jørgen Klinemann.
Right behind them came Selma Vaddelmyr greeting Karoline with her best smile, but Karoline wasn't necessarily smiling in return..
Someone else that wasn't smiling was Edny Sævik, the oldest child of the Sævik household. Her parents are Vetle Sævik and Oda Sævik, the latter unfortunately being in prison, so Edny sometimes has to take on the role of being the 'mother' of the household to help her father with caring for her two younger brothers....
Selmas daughter Jorunn was the next guest, greeting her mom as she arrived because it took a while for everyone to sort out who should enter first through the front door.. :P
Leya was the second to last guest I caught arriving, not holding any grudges against Selma for what happened a couple of months ago.
The last guest was Lars Erik Fikdsal, another kid that had recently been adopted by the Westgård family.
Tatiana Maria had somehow managed to sneak inside the house without anyone noticing. A future international super spy there, perhaps. :P
Solvej and Patriks living room is right up the stairs from the front door, but for some people its more natural to take the first door to the left and walk straight into their bedroom instead... It was quite crowded when Solvej went in there to pick up Lillian to celebrate her birthday.. Karoline had started an argument with Selma, and Leya was with Samiras father, Jørgen..
"If Gaute can flirth with others, then so can I...."
"...or maybe I shouldn't have done that. I better leave this party before somebody finds out..."
Then the main event could begin, and Lillian was the first one to be celebrated. Though the guests didn't seem to care much. It was only her brother Rune and her father Patrik that actually cheered for her. Everyone else were more concerned with their own business.. but anyway, happy first birthday to you, Lillian.
Welcome to toddlerhood. You'll probably get a little better dressed later. :P
Then it's time for the second twin Silvia to have her celebration. Elisa and Samira had left in between here, and just like with Lillian it was only her father and her brother that actually cared enough to celebrate. I guess people on this day just wasn't in a mood for partying. :P
Happy birthday, young one.
Those red hair genes must be pretty strong, as all three kids that Solvej have given birth to have gotten the same hair colour.
----
Yeah, people weren't to interested in partying at all, because by the time they sat down to eat the cakes even more people had left, and upstairs now it was really only Bodil that remained of all the guests...
The toddlers had located each their toy. Silvia with the doll house and Lillian with the peg toy box in the background.
Patrik didn't mind all the guests leaving so soon as he was still very tired, and so he suggested to Patrik (so that Bodil would hear it), that it was probably bedtime soon...
Oh, but the party had yet another guest, because I heard some laughter from outside.. I suspect that Gaute had spent most of his time there playing with the sprinklers in Solvejs greenhouse...
Gaute is very fond of children for a man that doesn't have the family oriented personality trait, as he rushes inside to cuddle with Lillian.
Solvej thinks it's bedtime and wants to put Silvia to bed, but Gaute was already there as well...
"Gaute.. please put down my child, so I can put her in her crib.. It's getting late and we all need our sleep..."
..but Gaute wasn't really listening, so Solvej had to pick up Lillian first.. :P
News ticker: Danica Tomren, "The girl from the Harbour Café", has now found a boyfriend in Lothar Marier, another one of the towns vehicle enthusiasts. He is the clever mechanic and engineer behind the local racers custom built cars.
Lothar Maier driving in a rusty old car that he sometimes drives in because it draws a lot less attention compared to his favorite ride...
Back in Solvej and Patriks house it's bedtime for Lillian and Gaute and Bodil take the hint and head back home to their own house by Cliffon Park.
"Thanks for the invitation, we had fun."
The buffet table in the background was Patriks idea, however since both he and Solvej was pretty tired the entire time and all the guests left pretty quickly, there wasn't really an opportunity to make use of it.. so into the storage it goes, hopefully to be used some other time.
Bedtime for Silvia too.. nighty night, sweetheart.
Finally then, the parents could make an attempt at getting some well deserved rest once more..
Rune didn't feel like going to bed just yet though, because, well.. there were monsters under the bed again...
Pretending to be a king is much better... "I commandeth thee, monsters of the underworld.. yield! Yield and return to the dark depths from whence thou cameth!"
The peace of the adults and toddlers bedroom didn't last very long, because Silvia needed to be fed..
Of course, that job was left to Solvej as all Patrik did was shout and curse and go back to sleep...
Eat and be merry.. Silvias first meal all on her own.
What comes in, has to come out.. with a smell that makes its way through every pore and is potentially lethal... :P
Downstairs Rune has successfully banished the monsters back to their lair so he can go to bed, and Solvej has put Silvia in her crib for the second time, and everyone can now finally asleep..
Well, everyone except one...
Good night.
Sub blogs: #01 Sunset Valley. #02: Lake Onebega #03: Sprottenham #04: Bewickton
Chapter 21.5 – Sprottenham May 2023: The botanists joke...
Solvej and Patrik learns that just because their babies got older and became toddlers, things aren't really all that different yet.. They still require their parents attention to be fed... Immediately. Now. It doesn't matter then if it's in the middle of the night and mom and dad are terribly deprived of sleep...
Lillian is in need of both a diaper change and food.. and as usual, Patrik does nothing and leaves it all to Solvej..
Lillian learns to eat. :P I like these close up shots to show their faces.
Silvia works on a completely different schedual than her sister, she didn't even fall asleep, so Solvej might as well just take her out of her crib and play with her. Solvej suspects she's not going to get much rest this month either..
Solvej had to go back upstairs to look after Lillian, and there's no help in Patrik because he is still asleep, so... Silvia was then left on her own to do some exploring. Looks like she found herself a new toy...
Cleaning is not the top priority right now.. Solvej instead wants to prioritize teaching the toddlers necessary skills as fast as possible, and she begins with most rewarding task, to teach Lillian to talk.. and the first word she teaches her is matchstick.. "They used to call me that when I was a kid" Solvej recalls, "..and I never really liked it. 'There comes matchstick Solvej' they used to say, because I was always tall and thin with freckles and red hair... I want to prepare my girls for what is probably to come, and I think the earlier I start, the better... Being a 'matchstick' is not a bad thing.. Don't play with fire, I'm just saying..."
When Patrik wakes up, he's just more concerned with whatever he wants to do, and goes to work out..
..until Solvej gets to tired and goes to shut off the tv to nap on the couch. "You watch after the kids for a while, I need to rest..."
Unfortunately Solvejs rest was cut short when Lillian started to practice on the xylophone right next to the couch...
Finally Silvia got tired. She had seen what mama did and wanted to copy her example. :P
With the toddlers now upstairs (and Silvia napping) Solvej managed to squeeze in another small nap on their bed downstairs.. Also, since she thought she was pregnant a couple of months ago ("when she had 'something in the oven'...), and since she now has three kids with Patrik, she thought it was time they got married and became a proper family. Now about the pregnancy, she did take a couple of pregnancy tests to make sure. The first one was negative and.. the second one was too. So with somewhat mixed feelings she had to conclude that she wasn't pregnant.. a sigh of relief from not having to raise even more babies and toddlers, and a bit of disappointment that another new life wasn't growing inside of her...
She still hadn't given up the idea of getting married and did her best to find time to set Patrik in the mood to ask the question..
However, he was being a little difficult as if he didn't want her to get to close, almost literally as he kept rejecting her attempts to give him a good romantic hug.. She had tried a few times earlier to discuss the topic of marriage with him, but he had always appeared a little uncomfortable every time she brought it up. She knew everything about his reputation and his past, and how people had warned her not to settle with this man, but.. he was what she fell for, how could she not? The always idealistic and younger Solvej thought she could be the one to make it work... but now he was the father of her children, and she wanted to seal it properly.. If only he could stop being so evasive.. She had to keep trying...
Upstairs Lillian and Silvia were being cute next to Lillians new favorite toy, the xylophone.
Patrik did show the occasional sign of being a family man as he made sure Silvia was being fed and cheered enthusiastically for Lillians xylophone practice. A glimmer of hope for Solvej..
It warmed Patriks heart when his boy Rune woke up to talk about physical exercize with him, apart from women (in plural...), sports and physical activity is Patriks main interest in life..
..but even so, it's hard to not love your own kids, even if you may not have planned to have them.. you were only there to enjoy 'the pleasures of the flesh' and then one thing led to another, and here you are...
Rune wanted to hangout with Elisa Meek from the twins birthday party, so he hopped on his bike to go to her house to see if she was home.
Solvej had yet again gone to nap on the bed in their bedroom and Patrik was now left alone upstairs with Lillian.. and then it must have finally snapped for him, because he went directly to the doll house and, well, smashed it...
"I'm so ******* sick and tired of this ******* dollhouse and being kept awake all the ******* time!...." he began before he continued into a pretty lengthy tirade of a highly unrepeatable nature.. the part I just shared with you is innocent like a toddler in comparison... if Solvej had been there to hear that she would no doubt consider a change of heart... It's probably for the better right now that Lillian has not yet learned to talk, and let's just hope she won't pick up on any of what he just said.....
When Rune came to Elisas house she had just left to go to the Harbour Square just across the street. He was just about to leave and go back home when he saw her and called for her to stop and wait for him.
She was heading for the Harbour Café with Danica who had adopted her after the.. incident.. last autumn when they were all freed from being held captive and their captors were sentenced to prison... Danica would often go to the Harbour Café to eat, it was part of her therapy program as suggested by her psychologist. Repeated exposure to combat the fear and unpleasant memories.. To make the Harbour Café and the surrounding area feel like the warm and pleasant place it was supposed to be..
The Café was very crowded with people waiting to buy their lunch, however the baristas were nowhere to be found. People were getting pretty impatient, and it got worse when a toddler let everyone know just how hungry it was...
Elisa was hungry too, and had looked forward to eating there, but as it couldn't be done Rune suggested they head over to the local seafood restaurant instead.. He hoped the restaurant should be a little calmer too..
He had to let Danica know before he could take here there as she was Elisas guardian and caretaker..
"I'm so hungry I could eat a whale..."
As Rune and Elisa entered the restaurant Fragen Froosh, one of the town elders exited to complain about the food and the service..
..but this is typical of Fragen, she was never really satisfied with anything. A retired teacher of the old school kind, she had always been firm in her belief that world had always been greatly lacking in order and discipline and if it had been up to her, teachers would still have been allowed to give their pupils a smack across the fingers with the pointing stick whenever they refused to sit still and pay attention..
Back home Solvej and Patrik had switched positions with Patrik now napping on the bed and Solvej taking care of the kids...
Rune and Elisa had both ordered a meal of sushi and they sat down to eat at the same table.
One of the current teachers at the school and the wife of Robert, the criminal mastermind behind the aforementioned incident nobody in town likes to talk to loudly about, Sandra Gudmestad-Kiinsmo has discovered a squirrel probably hanging around the restaurant to pick up food dropped on the ground by the guests..
She finds the squirrel cute and amusing, but Fragen.. does not.. "Squirrels are akin to rats pretty much" she snarls.. "Vermin and pests, that's all they are. That's all everything is.. just a pain in the... " Well, I think we just found the location of the aforementioned pointing stick... I guess she had to put it somewhere, when she could no longer use it to torment her pupils... What a cantankerous old fossil!
Well, things have modernized quite a lot since Fragen last tought anyone at school. Nowadays every pupil are given each their computer to do school work on by the state. Fragen would no doubt hate that.. There's no teaching like the old way, with chalk and a blackboard...
Here's the main reason why Rune wanted to hangout with Elisa, to hand her a gift. So far only to make friends, but he is just a little less than a year away from turning 13 and should soon begin to find more interest in romance.. just hope he won't end up like his father, but who knows.. :P
Elisa was super happy to receive a collection of festival tickets in a box. Not the most amazing gift in the world, but it was what he had, and as long as the gift worked, it's all good.
They're still just kids though, and for the rest of the night they run around the restaurant area playing tag with each other and having great fun.
The kids played around in the restaurant area until it started to rain and Elisa immediately decided it was time to head home. Not much reason there for Rune to hang around and it was already past curfew again, so he better head home too and hope mom doesn't notice.. again..
It was bedtime now. Patrik and Silvia were already asleep downstairs, and now it was Lillians turn. Solvej had of course noticed the broken doll house and wondered what happened..
Lillian had seemed upset as she babbled and pointed at it, so Solvej knew something had happened, but didn't know what it was. "Don't worry my little girl, I will have a look at it and see if I can fix it tomorrrow, but now it's time for bed..."
Just as Solvej came downstairs Rune came in through the door. "Oh.. hi mom, I have just been over at Elisas house and we forgot about time. I had told dad where I was, and Danica was there with us the whole time, so..."
"It's still to late and you should have been home an hour ago" Solvej interrupted him. "It's ok for now, but don't let it happen again. Now, go to bed."
Solvej usually wasn't this strict, but she was exhausted and feeling a little irritable too, so Rune didn't dare to do much but obey and go to bed..
And finally everyone was asleep at the same time, parents, child and toddlers alike and hopefully for once they could all get a good nights sleep without interruptions..
Good night.
Sub blogs: #01 Sunset Valley. #02: Lake Onebega #03: Sprottenham #04: Bewickton
..and a good nights sleep it was. Solvej had the most vivid dreams of her marriage. The sun coloured everything in a bright orange hue and seagulls were heard in the distance accomponied by the soothing sound of the ocean waves as they slowly rolled in to embrace the shoreline.... The sea breeze was mild, soft and gentle, just like the touch of his hand on her face.. and everything was perfect.
It was such a rush, it was the best high she had ever felt when they exchanged rings and their lips found each other and left everything else behind. She wasn't just floating, she was flying, leaving the grass and the cobblestone behind on her way up...
If she had opened her eyes, she would have seen the park, the harbour, the old fishing vessels passing the lighthouse on the way out and the town below her becoming smaller.. as she rose up past another couple in a wonderful hot air balloon saying they were heading for a club on the moon... past the clouds, leaving the atmosphere, the earth, and even the sun and the moon behind to a place where it was only them and them alone and they became one in a moment that felt like it should last forever... and she could hear the crowd cheer in the distance somewhere down there and all around them.. a cheer that gradually became more high pitched in voice, almost to the point of sounding like a baby crying...
That's when reality set in, and it was time to wake up...
"Whose turn is it this time?"
"I'll take her, you go back to sleep..."
Silvia had not adjusted her sleep schedual to the rest of the family, so this became a very early morning for Patrik. Since his young girl was having breakfast at this hour, he figured he might just do the same since he was already up...
This also gave him plenty of time before going to work at the police station to do some much needed cleaning up around the house as laundry had piled up here and there to become tiny mountains of dirty, smelly clothes..
When the actual morning came Rune woke up to open his Chest of Wonders, and in it he found a time portal that would transport him some million years back in time before sims existed and the Simtopian planet were habitated by reptiles much larger and more dangerous than the ones seen today...
Being a dinosaur for a while is cool, but like the poster in the school hallway says "The dinosaurs didn't read. Look what happened to them..", so when the school bus honks the costume goes back into the chest and out the door he goes.
Lillian woke up just as he found his seat, and sleep time for Solvej was now over..
"Oh my sweetheart, mommy is coming soon, it will be ok.." Solvej yawned on her way over to Lillians crib..
..before changing her diaper and taking her upstairs to place her on the floor next to the broken doll house.. "My little girl.. I wish you could tell me what happened to the doll house, but don't worry.. mommy will fix it..."
It takes her a couple of hours to fix it, and she really can't believe the toddlers would be able to do this all on their own... Rune was out of the house hanging out with his friend Elisa, so it couldn't have been him.. could Patrik have done it? It had been quite stressful for them since the twins were born and she knew that he could sometimes have a bit of a short fuse, so... but she pushed the thought aside, because on his good days he could be really sweet.... and of course, there was always his muscular body.. just curling up next to him in bed and have him put his strong arm around her.. no, it was probably just an accident and he probably didn't mean it...
She had already been at the jewelry store and bought the rings for both of them, and was going to ask the question when he came home from work...
"Let this be a secret between you and me for now, but I'm going to ask your daddy to marry me..."
Patrik pretty much had no idea what Solvej had in mind as he came home from work to pay the bills as usual.. Marriage was not something he had considered, the thought hadn't even crossed his mind.. but women, they're kryptonite to him, and Solvej was one of a kind. There was a wilderness to her that he hadn't found in any other woman. Of couse, there hadn't been to much of that for the past year as their babies had been very demanding and turning their bedroom into a no-go zone for that kind of thing... but there was always the shower, the kitchen counter or when she was feeling really risky, even the greenhouse... Solvej was not afraid to get dirty in more ways than one, and he loved every piece of it.
..and she knew it. If she wanted him to say yes, she had to surprise him and do what she did best..
..just in time for Rune to come home from school. When he saw his parents kissing like that, he knew it was time to leave them alone for a while..
"Hi mom, hi dad.. I'll be inside doing my homework...".. but just like Patrik, Rune didn't know what his mom had in store..
"What, Solvej...? What are you...? Not here, not now.. that's much to risky!" Not even Patrik was willing to take it to that level...
"You fool! But look.. I got something..."
"...Patrik.... will you marry me?"
"Yes!" Patrik knew that Solvej was a keeper, or he would have left a long time ago.. so he didn't really need to think to hard to give his answer. It takes a special kind of woman to capture a man whose wish in life is to break hearts, and Solvej was just that kind.... atleast for him she was. A match made in... Nirvana. Or right there on the grass, or usually just.. wherever they were. She was his match.. his matchstick, and no doubt could she light a fire...
Now in his former football career Patrik had gotten used to collecting trophies, but none were as shiny right now as this one ring on his finger.. He still wasn't sure if this was actually happening.. Did she just ask? Was it really him that told her "yes" or was he being someone else?
No, he was still there, and reality was still real as they launched into a long hug they wished could last for much longer than it did.. or just take it to the greenhouse to.. umm, water the roses, but..
..well, maybe later, because or now they had to care for their toddlers again..
The always musical Solvej thinks this day deserves a song, so she gets out her guitar to play a tune to her toddlers and Patriks great amusement.
Oh, happy day..
..and for some strange reason Patrik gets an urge to go the bathroom to check his appearance..
However, as he got up so early this morning, it's now bedtime for him.. and Solvej decides it's bedtime for the toddlers too as she puts them both in their cribs..
Then she gets the thought to go to the grocery store to sell of some of her harvest, but the store was closed and wasn't taking in goods at this hour. Come back a little earlier tomorrow, the store clerk told her, so she had to leave back home again, empty handed in terms of cash, but with her vegetables still in her possesions.. The rings she bought weren't cheap, so whatever money she could get now, would be very handy..
Then just as she was about to put her head on the pillow, her phone rang.. It was Christoffer Vaddelmyr, Selmas spouse, calling.. He wanted to know if they could hang out..
"...what? At this hour..? No.. if you really just want to hang out, how about you call me a little earlier in the day?"
"Oh yeah.. sure.. If you say so... ok, bye...."
"Give me a break.." Solvej thought to herself as she hung up and got ready to go to bed.. Nobody calls at this hour if all they want to do is hang out... Whatever happened in Christoffer and Selmas marriage wasn't really any of her concern.. Soon she would have her own to think about, but for now...
Good night.
Other happenings:
Kari Slettemoen has relocated to a new home with her husband Dimitov and their son Svenn. Interestingly Anne-Gerd Jørgensen, who is just a friend of the couple, still tags along with them instead of finding her own place...
Their new house is one of the many old typical brick houses found in the area.
Dongmei Xie-Luo, a colleague of Gaute and another parent of a set of twins (Hung and Jiang), just got promoted to wing woman in her career.
Wanda and Fred Westgård that runs the orphanage also became the parents of a new boy called Magnar.
I missed out on a birthday party, because Hoda Odinsdatter just had her 18th birthday and is now considered a young adult. She also got a job in the sports career. On this picture, she is at the library talking to Dimitov Slettemoen that became her new boss. This wasn't on purpose as I always try to catch and celebrate their birthdays, but, well.. can't be everywhere all at once.
Leon Maneval, the car enthustiastic frenchman, has now either dumped or been dumped by Anne-Gerd Jørgensen and has found a new lover in Siw Falch. Here he is outside her house, supposedly going for a nightly visit of the kind that Christoffer Vaddelmyr was hoping for when he called Solvej.. I thought earlier that Anne-Gerd had finally found a partner, but it looks like she is just continuing her streak of being eternally unlucky in love..
Life is different for different people.. where some always fails, other have found success that just keeps on being successful.. This is Karoline Gundersen in the hallway of her house with her husband Kabelo Gundersen and their son Alexander. Let's hope this is how Solvej and Patriks future marriage will turn out.
Sub blogs: #01 Sunset Valley. #02: Lake Onebega #03: Sprottenham #04: Bewickton
(Here it is. It's also linked to on a post on the next page..
Chapter 22.1 – Bewickton– January 2023:
Alright folks! Well, now that half a year has gone by for the people in the town of Sprottenham, as well as Sunset Valley and the university students of Lake Onebega it's time to catch up with the people living in the coastal community of Bewickton, just off the west coast... so it's time to bring out the map again, because I wouldn't know where anything is without looking at a map.
Last time we saw this town was when Leya, Gaute and Bodil left after visiting Leyas family and celebrating christmas with them, following her fathers stay and recovery at the hospital after he suffered a stroke just last year..
The last active household here was that of Leyas brother, Palash Chitrakaar, and his wife, Sofia Chitrakaar (nee Karlsen). So that's where I end up when I go back here, with Palash working out and being watched by their little puppy Yumi.
Sofia is, as I should have expected, at the fire station doing maintenance work on the fire truck. It's important to keep it in tip top shape in case of emergency. Palash's brother Bhavan also works in the fire department and after Sofia is done with the fire truck she wants to head over to talk to him, but...
..something is making her sick. "Ugggh.... why did I have to eat so many pancakes for breakfast? I guess this is the price I have to pay.. oh, who am I kidding.. Don't be silly Sofia, you know it's not the pancakes.."
(This part is missing).
Now, one of the things that Sofia dreaded the most is excactly what has been going on in Palashs sister Udishas house for the past months.. just like Solvej and Patrik in Sprottenham, Udisha and her husband have felt the lack of sleep on their bodies...
It has been a pain sometimes for the ambitious minded businesswoman Udisha, especially in the beginning when she had to take days off work to care for her daughter and youngest child, Madhunisha..
It's not any less stressful for the old man Dudleif, and having babies has slowed down his career of busting his own corrupt family, too..
For a brief moment Dudleif thinks he can enjoy a bit of romance with his wife, probably the main reason why they ended up having three children, but there is no time for it now, because work calls.. and their middle child Ole Christian just woke up and decided to wander off... better go after him and stop him before he gets stuck falling down the stairs...
"Here you go young man. I'll take you downstairs and feed you.. you're to young yet to do that on your own.."
Then there's their oldest child, Nishit, who has been slacking on his homework duties since last time.. He would like it if his younger siblings could just grow up a little faster, or atleast be more quiet, so he could actually focus on getting it done..
Dudleif and Nishit leaves for work and school on this rainy january morning, and it's time to call a babysitter to care for the youngest ones for a while..
The babysitter shows up on time and does a good enough job for the short while he has to be there.
The reason for that was that Dudleif was let off early from his job, and with a promotion and is now working at level 7 as a Crime Scene Technician! Lucky Dudleif.
So he got to go home to care for the kids and do some necessary housework again.
He was just about to teach Ole Christian to use the potty when Deepak called him to congratulate him with the recent promotion. Deepak must have his antennas out on a very sensitive setting, or word just spreads incredibly fast around town.
Fact: Dudleif is married to Deepaks oldest daughter, yet he is only one year younger than Deepak... make of that what you will, but Dudleif is about 36 years older than his wife.... Them pairing up, getting married and having children was all autonomous, I had no part in it!
Udisha didn't get promoted and had to work a full day, and since she is so ambitous, she always works hard. She didn't excactly feel like going home to the kids then, so instead she went to get a good salty scrub at the day spa just across the street.
Nishit biked home in the misty rain after having spent his time after school at the boy scouts where he earned a trophy.
The visit at the day spa was relaxing and did her good, but Udisha only had time to make sure Ole Christian was fed before she had to go to bed from being tired..
Nishit tried again to evade doing his homework by playing on the spring rider outside, but Dudleif wouldn't let him get away that easily.
Then finally it was time to give Ole Christian some much needed potty training before going to bed and hopefullygetting some sleep..
Ole Christian is old enough to find his toddler bed on his own and will ask to get fed whenever he gets hungry, but Madhunisha is still a lot more dependant on her parents.. Things should get a little easier though by next month when she will have her first birthday and can start to learn a few more skills too.
Now that mom had been woken up by the youngest one Ole Christian didn't want to go to sleep without hearing a bedtime story, so Udisha read him one from the cookbook about the salt shaker that accidentally fell into the chicken korma and ruined everyones day..
..before he was strictly told to go to sleep in his own bed! Mom and dad wanted to get as much peace as they could.. Dudleif had to get up again to give the youngest one a little more attention, but eventually the quiet slowly descended on this household and everyone could get some rest..
Of course this one, the up and coming birthday child, wasn't sleeping, but atleast she was quiet for a (welcome) change!
Good night!
Other happenings:
Christina Østreng (age: 19 years) has found a boyfriend in Notzo Curious. Christina was Nityas date for her prom night. Nitya is Udishas sister and the youngest child of Laranya and Deepak.
Charmain Mandahl-Gyldendals babies Denis and Ursula aged up to toddlers. Then Madhunisha can have some friends that are her age as she gets older.
Regine Willamsen-Brun became an elder and retired at age 66, though she looks like she has lived a hard life. Average life expectancy for the Simbrian nation is currently 82 years.
Ending note:
A marriage has been promised between Solvej and Patrik and it will happen, but sticking to my original plan I have to make this shift in time and location once more, but we will see Solvej and Patrik again at a later time too.
(Maybe.)
Sub blogs: #01 Sunset Valley. #02: Lake Onebega #03: Sprottenham #04: Bewickton